Utilization of Azadirachta Indica Latex for Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles its Application in Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye

Abstract

The use of extract from indigenous plant species for the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles has significant importance as they have a capacity to act as potential reducing, capping and stabilizing agent. In this research, latex of Azadirachta indica (Neem) was selected for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Maximum absorbance was achieved at 425 nm (λmax) for AgNPs. FTIR vibrational peaks of AgNPs were observed at 3462, 2933, 1732, 1658, 1458, 1381, 1244, and 1028 and near 600 cm -1. Moreover, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) showed that the synthesized AgNPs were face-centered cuboid, spherical, hexahedral, and pentagonal structures ranging in size between 7.15-71.5nm. XRD analysis shows that most of the nanoparticles have spherical crystalline structure. Photocatalytic degradation of hazardous azo dye; Methylene blue dye (MB) was performed in the presence of synthesized AgNPs as catalysts under UV-induced photocatalytic degradation. The degradation efficiency after 180 minutes of reaction time was 82 % which proposes its potential to use as environmental pollutant eradicators in the treatment of textile industries wastewater.