Novel application of sub-Antarctic macroalgae as zinc oxide nanoparticles biosynthesizers

Abstract

The search for novel starting materials in the biological synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) is crucial to develop synthetic procedures using environment-friendly approaches. In this sense, the aim of this study was to synthesize and evaluate ZnO NPs using green approaches produced from three sub-Antarctic macroalgae. It is worth noting that this was the first time that sub-Antarctic macroalgae were used for this purpose. Results showed that band intensity of polar bands that included hydroxyl (3779–3002 cm−1) and carbonyl groups (1770–1639 cm−1) decreased with the formation of ZnO NPs while the band associated to the zinc-oxygen bond appeared at 450 cm−1 in the synthesized nanomaterials. Further analysis confirmed the formation of ZnO NPs as the product was mostly composed of zinc (≥97.27%) in the form of nanoparticles. Finally, X-Ray Diffraction indicated the zincite phase present in the hexagonal structures of ZnO NPs while SEM analysis confirmed that the nanomaterials were homogeneous and well-compacted. Therefore, sub-Antarctic could be promising sources of phytochemicals to produce nanomaterials under environment-friendly approaches.