Synthesis and Characterization of CuO Nanoparticles and CuO/PVA-PVP Nanocomposites: Adsorption Activity for Malachite Green (MG) Dye and Antibacterial Property in Wastewater Treatment

Abstract Contaminated waterways, particularly effluent from the dye industry, are one of the major issues today. Among various methods adsorption being the most straight forward, low-cost, effective, and successful to treat such effluents. For this purpose, Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO) and Copper oxide nanoparticles embedded within Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) mixed polymer (CuO/PVA-PVP) were synthesized using precipitation methods and different analytical techniques such as dynamic light scattering (DLS), powdered X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize morphology and size. Synthesized nanomaterials were used for the adsorption of malachite green (MG) dye in aqueous solution by the batch adsorption method. Various experimental conditions e.g., contact time, concentrations, pH, were optimized to obtain best adsorption outcome. Adsorption kinetics and isotherm suggested that it follows Pseudo-second-order-kinetic and Freundlich isotherm. The invitro antibacterial activity was investigated using disk diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) test against Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus), a gram positive and Escherichia coli (E.coli), a gram negative bacteria, where both the synthesized nanoparticles showed a decent antibacterial activity against both the bacterial strain.