Facile green synthesis of NiO nanoparticles and investigation of dye degradation and cytotoxicity effects

Dispersed nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO-NPs) have been obtained through a "green" co-precipitation method using nickel nitrate hexahydrate and starch as Ni precursor and stabilizing/capping agent, respectively, while ammonia has been applied in the role of a complex agent throughout this procedure. The structural, photocatalyst, optical, and magnetic qualities of the NiO-NPs have been enquired into by FTIR, UV Vis, XRD, FESEM, EDX, VSM, and TGA/DTG. Magnetic measurement has confirmed the super paramagnetic behavior of NiO-NPs at ambient temperature after calcination procedures. The band gap of NiO-NPs has been calculated to be about 3.55 eV and thus, this sample is a semiconductor that can be utilized as photocatalysts. According to the obtained results, about 80% of methylene blue (MB) degrades in the presence of NiO-NPs under UV light after 270 min. In vitro cytotoxicity investigations on cells has exhibited a dose-dependent toxicity with non-toxic consequences in concentrations below similar to 7 mu g/mL. The synthesis outcomes have shown that starch can be an interesting material with the potential of being employed as a stabilizer for preparing small nanoparticles, as well as being a bio-template for nano particles growth. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.