Dual Degradation of Hexavalent Chromium (VI) and Cotton Blue Dye by Reduced and PVP-capped Silver Nanoparticles Using Fruit Extract of Ficus carica

Recent investigations on green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been widely used in various therapeutic and industrial applications. So in the present study, AgNPs and PVP coated AgNPs were biosynthesized using fig fruit (Ficus carica) named as FF-AgNPs PVP-FF-AgNPs. The FF-AgNPs and PVP-FF-AgNPs revealed the surface Plasmon resonance band at 446 nm and 460 nm respectively. The FT-IR analysis of both nanoparticles reveals that different bioactive components of the fruit extract were actively involved in reduction of AgNPs. The SEM revealed that the particles are roughly spherical and irregular in shape and size, EDX analysis confirms the formation of complete reduction of silver to elemental silver. DLS studies also revealed similar results with both the nanoparticles are within the range of 10 ± 5 nm to 35 ± 5 nm. The zeta potential studies reveal negative potential values were as follows FF-AgNPs has -13.8 mV and PVP-FF-AgNPs has -17.1 mV. They also exhibit good antimicrobial activity. Another important application of these nanoparticles is dual detection of toxic chromium (Ⅵ) and photocatalytic dye degradation of cotton blue by H₂O₂ quenching and without quenching. It is concluded that, biosynthesized FF-AgNPs and PVP-FF-AgNPs have multiple applications of economic importance and environmental pollution.