Antibacterial and photocatalytic aspects of zinc oxide nanorods synthesized using Piper nigrum seed extract

Develop a facile green route to synthesize various metal oxide nanoparticles is a critical task in green nanotechnology. The present work documented the utilization of Piper nigrum seed extract to synthesis zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to identify the crystalline formation of ZnO NRs. The X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) determined the atomic concentration of ZnO NRs. The arisen of a peak at 380 nm in the UV–vis DRS spectroscopy also affirmed the production of ZnO NRs. The transmission electron microscopic (TEM) analysis revealed the length of 415 nm and width 30.6 nm of the ZnO NRs. The synthesized ZnO NRs forcefully impeded the Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) and Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ) growth by concentration-dependent manner. Further, the scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis confirms the morphological changes and membrane damage in ZnO NRs treated S. aureus and E. coli bacterial cultures. The degradation efficacy of ZnO NRs against methylene blue was achieved by 97.32% within 150 min in sunlight exposure, and the pseudo-first-order rate of constant was determined of about 0.0194 min −1 . The present report reveals the better usage of ZnO-based nanomaterials for medical and environmental dye degradation applications. Graphic abstract