Multifunctional Nanoprobe for water purification: Zinc peroxide nanoparticles as potential photocatalyst for dye degradation and pathogen disinfection

Water, the most fundamental element of life on earth, next to air, is often contaminated through synthetic materials as well as harmful pathogens. This leads to the importance of developing novel materials and methods for water purification in an efficient and economic manner. Semiconductor nanoparticles are extensively exploited for their effective photocatalytic activities against synthetic organic dyes. Here, we focus on sunset yellow dye and its degradation, which is analyzed using zinc peroxide nanospheres (ZpNs), an interesting semiconductor nanoparticle with a highly porous morphology. The ZpNs are synthesized using the Leiden frost dynamic method, and its crystalline, morphological, and optical characterization is carried out by XRD, FTIR, XPS, TEM, HRSEM-EDS and UV–Vis NIR spectroscopy. The average crystallite size is 7 nm and the obtained band gap value is 4.24 eV and the material shows thermal stability up to 215 °C. The SEM and TEM analysis reflects the clustering of individual nanoparticles with an average cluster size of 180 nm. The material is analyzed for sunset yellow azo dye degradation by evaluating the absorbance over different ambient conditions. The maximum degradation of 93 % is obtained for the sample exposed to sunlight with H₂O₂ oxidizing agent. Besides these, the material is examined for its antimicrobial effects for the removal of micro-organisms from water bodies. The anti-microbial action of the synthesized sample is examined against 4 sets of clinically relevant bacterial species, and it is obtained that the material shows toxicity against Staphylococcus aureus with a MIC value of 250 μg/mL.