Camellia sinensis mediated synthesis of zero valent iron nanoparticles and study of their efficacy in dye degradation and antibacterial activity

ABSTRACT

In this work highly amorphous zero valent iron (ZVI) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesised using young shoots of Camellia sinensis. Polyphenol-coated ZVI NPs were characterised using Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-rays diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Transmission electron microscope (TEM). Particles obtained were a mixture of spherical and quasi-spherical shapes with an average size of 74 nm. Application of green synthesised ZVI NPs as Photo-Fenton like catalyst showed 100% degradation of Rhodamine B within 60 minutes. The kinetics of the degradation strictly followed pseudo-first-order reaction with rate constant 0.1 min⁻¹. ZVI NPs were also investigated for their antibacterial potency using disc diffusion method against four different bacterial strains. Out of four bacterial strains viz. Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, ZVI NPs (10 mg/ml) were found to be most potent against Pseudomonas aeruginosa where the zone of inhibition is found to be 18.4 mm.

KEYWORDS:

• Camellia sinensis
• Young shoots
• Zero valent iron (ZVI)
• Rhodamine B(RhB)
• Antibacterial

Acknowledgements

The authors of this study acknowledge Sr. Advisory Officer and Sr. Technical Officer of Tocklai, Tea Research Institute, Cachar for their support to carry out the study conducted here. Our special thanks go to Gauhati University, SAIF IIT Bombay, STIC Kerala and Lucid Laboratories Private Limited, Hyderabad for providing us with the analytical data.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing the paper.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.