Study on the Biological and Catalytic Activities of Newly Synthesized Silver Chloride-Anchored Palladium/Gold Bimetallic Alloy Nanoparticles

Abstract

We report herein a novel biogenic synthesis of cubic Silver chloride-anchored Gold/Palladium (AgCl@Au/Pd) bimetallic alloy nanoparticles (NPs) using Bos taurus indicus (BTI) urine at room temperature. It is proposed that biological components in BTI urine act as a reducing agent for the synthesis of AgCl@Au/Pd bimetallic alloy NPs by a simple reduction method. As synthesized AgCl@Au/Pd bimetallic alloy NPs, they are characterized by using XRD, FT-IR, SEM/FE-SEM, XPS and particle size with zeta potential. After refinement of the XRD data, the synthesized material was found to consist of AgCl. The cubic nanostructure of the AgCl@Au/Pd bimetallic alloy is confirmed by SEM, FE-SEM and TEM. Such structure and assembly of AgCl, Au and Pd resulting in the formation of AgCl@Au/Pd bimetallic alloy NPs are reported for the first time. The catalytic activity of the AgCl@Au/Pd bimetallic alloy NPs is determined using the degradation of dyes and the reduction of nitroarenes. Additionally, the antibacterial and antioxidant properties of the newly synthesized AgCl@Au/Pd bimetallic alloy NPs are also investigated, which show good antimicrobial and moderate antioxidant properties. Thus, the study proposes a cheaper and non-toxic BTI urine-assisted synthesis of nanomaterials and nanocomposites with unique morphologies and compositions, with the potential for large-scale production.

Keywords: AgCl NPs, Cubic NPs, Nanocatalyst, Nitroarenes reduction, and Dye degradation, etc.