Enhanced Efficiency of Novel Green and Urea Mediated CuCo2O4 Nanocomposites for Acetaminophen Drug Loading, Accessible Catalytic Reduction of Nitro Compounds and Adsorption of Pesticides

Researchers are focussing on creating sustainable environment by reducing the production and consumption of materials. The catalysis is not an exception, so there is always need for a catalyst that can perform multiple applications. Here, (Carica Papaya) and urea mediated CuCo₂O₄ nanocomposite was synthesized using simple co-precipitation method to perform drug loading, reduction of nitrocompounds and adsorption of pesticides. The prepared plant mediated CuCo₂O₄ (CCP) and urea mediated CuCo₂O₄ (CCU) was characterized using analytical techniques like XRD, UV-Vis, FT-IR, SEM-EDAX, TEM and DLS studies etc. The XRD patterns of CCP and CCU were indexed to the cubic spinal structure with the crystallite size of 11.9 and 27.6 nm by calculated using Scherrer’s equation. The typical FT-IR spectra of CCP and CCU composites exhibited two extremely strong vibration peaks at the range of 658 − 657 and 540–545 cm^− 1 due to the presence of the Co-O and Cu-O bond vibrations respectively. The band gap values (E_g) were found to be 1.3 and 1.5 eV and thermal stability of the prepared CuCo₂O₄ was analyzed using thermogravimetric studies. The SEM images confirmed the spherical morphology with the particle size of 89.9 and 107 nm respectively. The catalytic efficiency was analyzed by using acetaminophen as a sample drug for finding the loading efficiency of CCP and CCU found to be linear with time of loading had good R² values of 0.93 and 0.91 respectively. The drug loading efficiency or entrapment efficiency of the CCP and CCU was found to be 72.8 and 85.2% after 48 h of drug loading respectively. The catalyst weight dependant activity of CCP and CCU in the reduction of 2-nitrophenol and 2-nitroaniline effectively witnessed the ability of CCP and CCU over other catalysts. Furthermore, CCP and CCU were used as the adsorbents and made to adsorb the real time agricultural pesticide like pendimethalin for a period of 130 min and the obtained cumulative data suggested the superiority of CCP over CCU in the above catalytic applications.