A comprehensive study on photocatalytic, antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxicity effects of biosynthesized pure and Ni doped CuO nanoparticles

Copper oxide nanoparticles doped with various concentrations of Ni have been synthesized by green method using A. muricata leaf extract. The obtained nanoparticles were characterized through XRD, FTIR, XPS, SAED, EDX, HRTEM, SEM and UV-Visible spectroscopy. The XRD pattern reveals all samples have crystalline nature and exhibit monoclinic structure. The presence of Cu, Ni and O elements in EDX spectra indicates purity of the sample, according to quantitative analysis. The Ni doped CuO nanoparticles exhibit higher antibacterial activity against gram negative P. aeruginosa bacterial strain and high antifungal activity against C. albicans. Also, CuO nanoparticles show significant cytotoxicity towards L929 normal fibroblast cell lines. The antioxidant activity results indicate that as the concentration of nanoparticles increases, the radical scavenging activity also in-creases. Moreover, the synthesized nanomaterials were investigated for the photocatalytic activity of methylene blue dye under sunlight irradiation. Hence, the present study focuses on versatile applications in drug design and creates opportunities to revolutionize waste water treatment due to the low cost and ease of production of nanoparticles.