Photocatalytic and antibacterial activities of hydrothermally prepared CdO nanoparticles

CdO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized (hydrothermal) with cadmium acetate and ammonium hydroxide as starting materials and characterized by XRD, FE-SEM and FTIR. It exhibits face centred cubic structure with an average crystallite size of 43 nm and the lattice strain (W–H plot) is 0.0029. The surface morphological image appears particle like structure (150 nm). The vibrational stretching mode of Cd–O is 620 cm−1 whereas micro Raman reveals the overtone at 389 cm−1. The optical energy bandgap is found to be 2.47 eV from the UV–Vis spectra. Five emission peaks were recorded at 360, 429, 488, 527 and 640 nm upon excited at 290 nm. The SHG efficiency is 0.84 times of KDP. The photocatalytic performance has been evaluated of the CdO NPs for the degradation of methylene blue under sunlight irradiation. CdO NPs were screened for their in vitro antibacterial activity against human pathogens such as Gram negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris) and Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis) bacteria has been investigated.