Antioxidant, dye degradation, and molecular docking studies of orange peel extract derived Ag-Fe-Ni nanoparticles

Abstract

Nanotechnology has the potential to govern matter at the nanoscale and revolutionise a number of industries, including materials science, hardware, pharmaceuticals, and energy, by facilitating the production of novel materials, technologies, and ideas with exciting properties and uses. This work presents a sustainable process of synthesising Ag-Fe-Ni trimetallic nanoparticles from orange peel extract (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck), which functions as a reducing and capping agent. The nanoparticles were effectively synthesised and characterised using a number of methods, including UV–Vis, Zeta potential, FESEM, EDX, and XRD. The effectiveness of the anti-cancer, catalytic, and antioxidant properties were assessed. Molecular docking was conducted on the synthesised compounds to examine their potential in relation to the complex of ERK2 and catechol. According to the results, the molecules with the least binding energy was 15.55 kcal/mol. Also the synthesied nanoparticles showed increased antioxidant activity and the degradation of methyl red, phenol red, and eosin yellow. Ag-Fe-Ni trimetallic nanoparticles showed antioxidant activity of 89.94 % at 1000 µg/mL. In 60 min, methyl red degraded to 97.67 %. The synthesised compounds have the potential to serve as lead compounds through further optimisation and have anti-cancer activities, as demonstrated by the results of molecular docking study. Thus, Ag-Fe-Ni trimetallic nanoparticles generated from orange peel may serve as a novel antioxidant, catalytic, and anti-cancerous agent.