Eco-friendly green synthesis of Ag@Fe bimetallic nanoparticles: Antioxidant, antimicrobial and photocatalytic degradation of bromothymol blue.

Silver-iron bimetallic nanoparticles (BMNPs) were synthesized by using AgNO3 and Fe(NO3)3 as an Ag/Fe source in presence of Palm dates fruit. Upon addition of extract to a solution of Ag+ and Fe3+, a prefect transparent stable dark brown color appears with in a few minuets at room temperature. In order to conform the nature of resulting color, UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) techniques were used. The absence of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peaks in the entire UV-visible region suggests the formation of silvercore-ironshell BMNPs. The obtained nanoparticles were used as a catalyst for the degradation of bromothymol blue (BTB) in absence and presence of sunlight. The degradation kinetics was studied in presence of electron acceptors and scavengers, such as hydrogen peroxide, ammonium oxalate, ammonium per sulphate, benzoquinone, isopropyl alcohol, n-butanol, potassium bromate and potassium iodide. Radical trapping experiments demonstrates that active holes (h+) and generated hydroxy radical are primary species involved in H2O2 assisted catalytic degradation process. The free-radical scavenging, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities were determined for extract and BMNPs. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activities were found to increase with increasing the amounts of extract. The silver-iron showed good invitro antibacterial activities against human pathogens.