Highly efficient catalytic/sonocatalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol and antibacterial activity through a bifunctional Ag/ZnO nanohybrid material prepared via a sodium alginate method

In this work, a bifunctional nanohybrid silver/zinc oxide material (Ag/ZnO) has been synthesized by a rapid route using sodium alginate simultaneously as a sacrificial template and silver reducing agent. The obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), solid diffuse reflectance and liquid state UV-visible spectroscopy (DRS, UV-visible), and nitrogen adsorption–desorption analysis (BET–BJH). The XRD patterns showed that the Ag/ZnO sample is composed of a hexagonal zinc oxide structure with cubic metallic silver (Ag°). SEM micrographs exhibited a porous structure which was confirmed by BET–BJH methods to be mesoporous. The Ag/ZnO material was used as a nanocatalyst in the conversion of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) as well as an antibacterial agent against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. It was found that an efficient 4-NP reduction to 4-AP in the presence of NaBH(4) shows a rate constant of 0.418 min(−1) under ultrasonic energy and 0.316 min(−1) without ultrasonic energy. Both the catalysis reaction and antibacterial activity analysis were conducted in water solution and showed a synergetic effect of metallic silver loading.