Eco-Friendly Synthesis of Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles Using Gum Arabic Polymer: Examining Their Photocatalytic Efficiency and Cytotoxicity

Abstract

In this paper, cobalt oxide nanoparticles (Co₃O₄ nanoparticles) were fabricated via a sol–gel method utilizing gum arabic polymer as a nontoxic reducing agent. To explore the characterization of the Co₃O₄ nanoparticles, different analyses were conducted. XRD outcome emphasized that the particle size of Co₃O₄ nanoparticles was between 36 nm and 42 nm, while the FESEM images showed that the Co₃O₄ nanoparticles were agglomerated due to their small size and spherical shape. Following these suitable characterization outcomes, the photocatalytic activity of Co₃O₄ nanoparticles was done on organic dye methylene blue (MB) decolorization under UVA light, and the outcomes were indicative of 92% degradation after 140 min. Over and above that, the cytotoxicity effects of Co₃O₄ nanoparticles were examined against the noncancer cells (L929) and HepG2 cells via MTT assay, and the IC₅₀ amount for cancer cells was around 475 µg/mL.