Discovery of high antibacterial and catalytic activities of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles using C. fruticosus (CF-AgNPs) against multi-drug resistant clinical strains and hazardous pollutants

Our project focused on cost effective, rapid, and novel plant mediated biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using Convolvulus fruticosus extract (C. fruticosus; CF-AgNPs). The morphology, size, optical and structural properties of synthesized AgNPs were identified by UV–Vis,​ DLS, XRD, FESEM, TEM, FT-IR and, EDX techniques. The synthesis conditions were then optimized using essential parameters like AgNO 3 concentration, pH, temperature and, reaction time. XRD, TEM, and FESEM analysis of the samples showed the cubic crystal structure, spherical-like shaped particles with about 45 nm sizes. The zeta potential displayed the value of −23.7 mV, indicating the high stability of biosynthesized CF-AgNPs. The FT-IR spectra showed the role of the functional groups in C. fruticosus for the formation of AgNPs such as routine compound. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized CF-AgNPs was evaluated by degradation of basic blue 9 (BB9) and eriochrome black T (EBT) contaminants under UV and sunlight irradiations. The biosynthesized CF-AgNPs exhibited 86.7% and 81.3% degradation activity against BB9 and BB9 pollutants under UV irradiation, respectively. Furthermore, the biosynthesized nanoparticles showed high antibacterial activity against S. aureus (SA-1), E. faecalis (EF-1), A. baumannii (AB-1), E. coli (EC-1), P. mirabilis (PM-1), K. pneumonia (KP-1), and P. aeruginosa (PA-1) strains with MIC values of 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 1, 1, and 0.5 g/ml, respectively. These findings suggest that synthesized silver nanoparticles using C. fruticosus can have applications in various fields such as wastewater treatment and biomedical.