Antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic effect of Molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles and application of this for degradation of ketamine under different light illumination

• Molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal method.
• Molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles exhibited photocatalytic property under visible, ultraviolet and sunlight irradiations.
• The particles exhibited excellent antimicrobial and antioxidant properties.
• The MoO3 nanoparticles have an application as a potential chemo-preventive agent.

A hydrothermal method was employed to synthesize Molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) nanoparticles. The synthesized samples were evaluated for photocatalytic properties and biological application. The nanoparticles characterized by scanning electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer and UV–Vis DRS spectra. The synthesized MoO3 NPs were found to be spherical in shape with size in the range of 75 nm. The synthesized MoO3 nanoparticles have good optical properties with 2.78 eV of band-gap. The photocatalytic properties of the synthesized MoO3 nanoparticles were carried out by performing the degradation of ketamine under visible, UV and sunlight irradiations. A high efficiency was observed between sunlight and MoO3 nanoparticles for the photocatalysis reaction. Two compounds as intermediates of photo-degradation of ketamine under visible and UV lights were detected. The antifungal activity of the nanoscale MoO3 against Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger was assessed using the disc-diffusion susceptibility tests. All MoO3 nanoparticles concentrations showed good ABT radical scavenging activity. Then, this research has been presented to exhibit the synthesized MoO3 NPs which indicated a high antibacterial activity against Gram negative and positive bacteria and were also proved to exhibit excellent cytotoxic influence on lung and breast cancer cell lines. The results show that the high applicability of MoO3 nanoparticles biologically was great and is environmentally friendly.