https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04387-2
Regular Article
Novel green synthesis of magnesium–titanium–zinc trimetal oxide nanocomposites as heterogeneous photocatalysts for antibacterial activities and shelf life applications
1
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, 50700, Gujrat, Pakistan
2
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, 50700, Gujrat, Pakistan
3
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
Received:
23
May
2023
Accepted:
16
August
2023
Published online:
28
August
2023
In this research, two major concerns of scientific community water pollution and food conservation have been addressed. A facile green synthesis process has been employed for ZnO, Ti–ZnO dimetal oxide and Mg–Ti–ZnO trimetal oxide by psidium guajava leaf extract as stabilizing and reducing agent. Different techniques like SEM, EDX, XRD, UV-visible, FTIR and PL have been used to characterized the synthesized sample (s). The average crystalline size was measured as 11 nm. The band gap calculations show that the trimetal oxide has reduced band gap of 2.13 eV. Examination of photocatalytic prospective of these fabricated nanoparticles for removal of methylene blue revealed its powerful photodegradation enhancement that reached 95%. The durability of Mg–Ti–ZnO was discernible because its performance was 79% after six regeneration cycles. The synthesized nanoparticles has been tested for pathogenic bacteria (E. coli and Staphlyococcus Aureus) and the fungal strains (Fusarium Spp. and Rosellinia nscatrix) to examine antimicrobial activity. This antimicrobial activity is attributed to the fact that Mg–Ti–ZnO nanoparticles can be implied on fruit (banana) to enhance shelf life. The firmness (N), weight loss percentage and total soluble sugar (TSS) content were investigated up to 35 days. Quite interestingly, the results have confirmed that Mg-Ti-ZnO nanoparticles can be employed for storage of banana as nanoparticles penetration was not detected in peel to pulp of banana which is a unique and novel finding. Therefore, the Mg-Ti-ZnO nanoparticles are recommended to increase shelf life without compromising the nutritive values.
Hira Naseer and Tahir Iqbal have equally contributed to this work.
Copyright comment Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
