Green synthesis of zinc ferrite nanoparticles in Limonia acidissima juice: Characterization and their application as photocatalytic and antibacterial activities

The zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4) nanoparticles were prepared by a green method using Limonia acidissima (wood apple) juice. The synthesized ZnFe2O4 samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM with EDAX, TEM, UV-DRS and luminescence. X-ray diffraction confirms the formation of the cubic spinel crystal structure of ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles with an average crystallite size of 20 nm. The prepared nanoparticles showed the agglomerated and spherical shaped particles from the SEM and TEM. The EDAX confirms the pure phase with all the elemental compositions present in the ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles. FTIR confirmed the characteristic functional groups present in the spinel ferrite. The VSM study shows the high saturation magnetization of prepared nanoparticles. The ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles showed effective photodegradation for Evans blue and Methylene blue under visible light irradiation. Moreover, the antibacterial activity of the prepared nanoparticles was carried out by agar well diffusion method against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains.