Punica granatum – based ternary metal oxide Nanoparticles: Degradation of Methylene Blue and Antimicrobial Study

The production of nanoparticles derived from plant extracts has attracted considerable attention due to their cost-effectiveness, eco-friendly nature, and effective performance in different applications such as wastewater treatment and biomedicine. The present research emphasizes the eco-friendly synthesis of a nano-hybrid structure consisting of punica granatum (PGE) extract with zinc, lead, and manganese (ZPM). It is designed for efficient degradation of Methylene blue (MB) in nano-hybrid water systems. Punica granatum incorporated Zinc, lead and manganese (PGE/ZPM) nanohybrid structure was characterized using various techniques including FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy), FESEM (Scanning electron microscopy) with elemental mapping, HRTEM (Transmission electron microscopy), XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) XRD (X-ray diffraction), TGA (Thermogravimetric analysis) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The study included a thorough investigation of the optimization parameters specifically analyzing the effects of pH, dye concentration and catalyst dosage. The results showed that under solar exposure, 83.68% of Methylene blue (MB) was removed within 3 hours. The degradation mechanism follows pseudo-first order kinetics and the highest rate of degradation of MB at pH 6.0 was determined to be k= 0.0159 min-1. The photocatalyst was reused for five cycles, showing only a minor decline in degradation effectiveness. Antibacterial effectiveness of PGE, ZPM and PGE/ZPM was also assessed against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). In summary, the cost-effective and environmentally friendly method used to synthesize PGE/ZPM has proven to be a versatile photo-catalytic and antibacterial agent.