Catalytic Evaluation of Solid State Hand-crafted Bimetallic Nanocore-Shell Composite via Green Reducing Agent

The material fabrication via greener way as well as the magnetic nature for easy recoverability of the catalyst offers a way to put forth on material as Azadirachta indica (AI) decorated Fe3O4@Ag-Cu nanocomposite. The nanocomposite (NC) was prepared by an eco-friendly one-step hand-made grinding method. Herein, the AI powder acts as a greener reducing and stabilizing agent for preparing nanocomposite (NC). The successfully synthesized bimetallic catalyst was examined with the help of HR-TEM, FE-SEM, XPS, VSM, XRD, FT-IR, and UV-vis studies. On average, the size of NC range was around 21 ± 3 nm, and the NC was spherical in shape while the metal nanoparticles (MNPs) were uniformly distributed over the surface of the AI extract. The green catalyst prepared by varying ratios of the metals was examined for the treatment of pollutant water-containing dyes and pharmaceutical waste. The core advantage of the green synthesized catalyst was tested for the photo-reduction of well-known pharmaceutical waste, such as paracetamol and ciprofloxacin in an efficient manner, and their rate constants were 3.82 ×10-2 min-1 and 1.27 ×10-2 min-1 respectively. Furthermore, the NC acquires the capability to degrade carcinogenic pollutants like Xylene Cyanol FF (XC) and Malachite Green (MG) at 86% and 82%, respectively. Despite this, it shows good antibacterial activity towards gram-positive (B. subtilis and S. aureus) as well for gram-negative bacteria (E. coli, P. aeruginosa). The catalyst was also employed for the reduction of 4-Nitrophenol (4-NP). A comparative strategy for the reduction of the pollutants with the help of sodium borohydride vs the photo-reduction were analyzed in these strategical studies. was Thus, the bimetallic catalyst flagged a better way to reduce pharma compounds and several noxious pollutants due to its low cost, highly efficient, and reusability holding good for many cycles.