“Effect of datura metel leaf extract on Cd@ZnO NCs for pollutant reduction and antimicrobial activity”

This work reports a facile approach for synthesizing Cadmium @ Zinc oxide (x = 0, 5, 15 ml) nanocomposites (NCs) using leaf extracts of datura by co-precipitation method without varying the concentration of dopant followed by the comparison of their physical and optical properties. It is characterized by UV–vis, FTIR, PXRD, FESEM, EDAX, HRTEM, Raman spectroscopy, and PL analysis. PXD confirmed pure and crystallized with FCC with 32.35, 27.82, and 27.51 nm grain sizes. FTIR confirms that plant precursors acted as reducing and capping agents by stretching vibration at 546, 507, 487, and 433cm⁻¹. SEM and HRTEM data revealed the existence of spherical nanocomposites with nearly identical particle sizes. EDAX showed the existence of a nanocomposite of Cadmium @ Zinc oxide (x = 0, 5, 15 ml) nanocomposite. Raman spectra indicated that the Cd@ZnO NCs were crystallized in a hexagonal (wurtzite structure). A blue emission peak was observed in photoluminescence spectra. In the UV–Vis spectroscopy, band gaps of the synthesized nanocomposite are determined. By increasing extraction concentrations, the degradation efficiency of rhodamine-B dye increases up to 87.87 %. g-CZO nanocomposite effectively controlled both bacterial species Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia in antimicrobial activity.