An efficient biosynthesis of novel ZnO/CuO nanocomposites using berberis vulgaris extract (ZnO/CuO@BVENCs) for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of pollution, antibacterial and antifungal activity

In this study, an environmentally-friendly method was employed to synthesize ZnO/CuO nanocomposites using berberis vulgaris extract, resulting in ZnO/CuO@BVE NCs. The structure and properties of the ZnO/CuO@BVE NCs were characterized using various analytical techniques including XRD, UV-DRS, FESEM, FT-IR, EDAX, and TEM. UV-DRS results highlighted a bandgap energy reduction from 3.11 eV to 2.93 eV due to CuO integration with ZnO. TEM images confirmed the nanocomposite size to be between 35-50 nm. To evaluate the photocatalytic effectiveness of the biosynthesized nanocomposites, rhodamine b (RhB) was used as a representative contaminant. We thoroughly investigated the influence of multiple variables such as dye concentration, nanocatalyst amount, light source, and pH on the photocatalytic degradation of RhB. Under optimized conditions (0.15 g/L nanocatalyst, pH 11, UV light, and 3 ppm pollutant concentration), a remarkable 97.3% RhB degradation efficiency was achieved. Additionally, the antibacterial properties of the ZnO/CuO@BVE NCs were tested against six ATCC strains. Notably, they exhibited strong antibacterial action, especially against K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) as low as 62.5 & mu;g/mL. Furthermore, the nanocomposites demonstrated significant antifungal activity against C. albicans with an MIC of 31.2 & mu;g/mL. This research emphasizes the potential applications of ZnO/CuO@BVE NCs in environmental remediation and medical fields. & COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).