Tinospora cordifolia and polyvinylpyrrolidone encapsulated dual doped Ni-Cu TiO2 emerging nanocatalyst for the removal of organic dyes from wastewater and its free radical assay activity

Abstract

In this study, a microwave-assisted method was used to encapsulate dual doped nickel-copper titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (Ni-Cu TNPs) with polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and plant Tinospora Cordifolia (TC). The catalytic efficiency of encapsulated TNPs was performed through photocatalytic activity against Methyl Orange (MO) and Methylene Blue (MB) dyes as considered as water pollutants released by textiles industries. Also, these encapsulated TNPs were incubated in scavenging activity to eliminate the free radicals 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The physicochemical properties of the encapsulated TNPs were analyzed using different characterization techniques. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD revealed that the encapsulated dual doped Ni-Cu TNPs had a tetragonal crystal lattice structure. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirms the spherical morphology of encapsulated dual doped Ni-Cu TNPs with an average particle size ranging from 33 to 41 nm. The bandgap of the encapsulated dual doped Ni-Cu TNPs was found to be between 3.47 and 3.54 eV. Under UV radiation, the photocatalytic activity was performed with using control experiment and using encapsulated dual doped Ni-Cu TNPs against MO and MB dyes. The rate of degradation reached up to 99% for both dyes on increasing with an increase in TNPs catalyst dosage. Also, the encapsulated dual doped Ni-Cu TNPs demonstrated antioxidant activity of up to 93% against the DPPH assay.