Biogenic synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles mediated from Borassus flabellifer (Linn): antioxidant, antimicrobial activity against clinical pathogens, and photocatalytic degradation activity with molecular modeling

Borassus flabellifer leaf extract has been used for rapid biogenic-synthesis of Zinc-Oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) due to rich source of bioactive compounds. The synthesized ZnO-NPs were preliminarily confirmed by UV-Visible spectroscopy adsorption peak range at 365nm. The XRD (X-ray diffraction) confirm purity of ZnO-NPs that were crystalline in nature. The analysis of FT-IR (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy) confirm the presence of following functional group such as alcohol, phenols, carboxylic acids, primary amides, secondary amides, alkyl halide. FE-SEM analysis indicated that ZnO-NPs were in spherical shape, followed by EDX analysis which confirmed the presence of Zn-element. Antimicrobial effect of ZnO-NPs was investigated using different clinical pathogens like bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella Pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and fungi Aspergillus flavus, Candida albicans and Penicillium expansum and which confirmed ZnO-NPs efficiency as an antimicrobial agent. Antioxidant activity were ascertained to used for several biomedical applications. The ZnO-NPs was efficiently degraded the environmental toxic dyes (methylene blue and crystal violet) under sunlight. In support of photolight-degradation, the study was progressed to understand the ZnO-dye interaction stability using molecular mechanism and it was showing efficient bonding features in the NPs environment. Overall, this investigation have great potential for being an effective and eco-friendly materials was used in environmental applications.