Phytosynthetic Ag doped ZnO nanoparticles: Semiconducting green remediators

Highly stable semiconducting silver doped zinc oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized via facile, biomimetic and sustainable route, through utilization of Zinc acetate dihydrate (C4H6O4Zn center dot 2H(2)O) as host, Silver nitrate (AgNO3) as dopant and phytochemicals of angiospermic medicinal plant Prunus cerasifera as the reducing agents. Synthesis of Ag doped ZnO nanoparticles was done in a one pot synthetic mode by varying the amount of dopant from 0.2 - 2.0%. Synthesized photocatalyst nanoparticles were analyzed via UV-vis, FTIR, XRD and SEM. Commendable alleviation in the direct band gap i.e. 2.81 eV was achieved as a result of doping. Silver doped zinc oxide nanoparticles size ranged between 72.11 - 100 nm with rough surface morphology and higher polydispersity degree. The XRD patterns revealed the hexagonal wurtzite geometry of crystals with an average crystallite size of 2.99 nm. Persistent organic dyes Methyl Orange, Safranin O and Rhodamine B were sustainably photodegraded in direct solar irradiance with remarkable degradation percentages up to 81.76, 74.11 and 85.52% in limited time with pseudo first order reaction kinetics (R-2 = 0.99, 0.99 and 0.97). Furthermore, efficient inhibition against nine microbes of biomedical and agriculturally significance was achieved. Synthesized nanoparticles are potential green remediators of polluted water and perilous pathogens.