Photocatalytic activity against azo dye and cytotoxicity on MCF-7 cell lines of zirconium oxide nanoparticle mediated using leaves of Lagerstroemia speciosa

- Green synthesize was adopted to prepare zirconium nanoparticles from the leaves of L. speciosa extract.
- The ZrO NP was confirmed by XRD and morphology was studied by TEM and SEM analysis.
- Tetragonal structure was confirmed from XRD and TEM.
- Photocatalytic activity was performed using ZrO NPs for the azo dye.
- The cytotoxicity activity was done for MCF-7 cell lines.

Metal oxide nanoparticles are gaining interest in recent years. The present paper explains about the green synthesis of zirconium oxide nanoparticles (ZrO NPs) mediated from the leaves of Lagerstroemia speciosa. The prepared ZrO NPs were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, FT-IR, X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The photocatalytic activity of ZrO NPs was studied for azo dye by exposing to sunlight. The azo dye was degraded up to 94.58%. Also the ZrO NPs were studied for in vitro cytotoxicity activity against breast cancer cell lines-MCF-7 and evaluated by MTT assay. The cell morphological changes were recorded by light microscope. The cells viability was seen at 500 μg/mL when compared against control. Hence the research highlights, that the method was simple, eco-friendly towards environment by phytoremediation activity of the azo dye and cytotoxicity activity against MCF-7 cell lines. Hence the present paper may help to further explore the metal nanoparticle for its potential applications.

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