Green Synthesis, Characterization, Antioxidant and Photocatalytic Dye Degradation Effects of Copper (Cu) Nanoparticles from the Aqueous Extract of Persea americana

Abstract

Nanoparticles have played a very important role in modern research. This technology involves the synthesis of nanoparticles with controllable size, shape, and material dispersion at nanometer-scale lengths. In the current work, copper nanoparticles have been synthesized by simple green technology using Persea americana leaf extract. The formation of Cu NPs was monitored by recording UV-Vis absorption spectra showing surface plasmon resonance at 320 nm. The green synthetic copper nanoparticles will be further characterized by FT-IR, FESEM, EDS and XRD. FT-IR identified the presence of active groups and phenolic groups. The crystal morphology and size of the nanoparticles will be determined by FESEM and X-ray diffraction studies. It was found that the average particle size of the copper nanoparticles was in the range of 71 nm. These biosynthetic copper nanoparticles were tested for the photocatalytic dye degradation of commercially important textile dyes such as methylene blue The antioxidant activity of green synthesized nanoparticles from the fruit extract was analysed by DPPH-free radical scavenging assay method. The results show that green synthetic nanoparticles have strong dye degradation potential.