Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine-B Dye in Wastewater and Biological Study Using Licorice Leave-Mediated Copper Oxide Synthesis Prepared by Green Synthesis Method

In the current work, licorice leaves were used in a green synthesis approach to create copper oxide nanoparticles. An extensive range of analytical methods, including UV-Visible, FTIR, EDX, FE-SEM, and AFM, were employed to assess the shape, size, surface area, and optical characteristics of the CuO NPs formed. The possibility that CuO NPs could catalyze the degradation of Rhodamine-B, a pollution indicator found in water bodies, was investigated. The degradation process was studied using various experimental configurations, including multiple catalyst loadings, irradiation sources (UVC, UVB, UVA, and halogen lamps), reaction media, the use of NaOCl as an activating agent for the catalysts, and a kinetic analysis of dye. The de-colorization efficiency with the highest results (61.49%) was achieved with 0.118 g of catalyst and pH = 10. CuO NPs were exposed to NaOCl activation for 3 h, and this resulted in an increase in photocatalytic degradation yield from 61.49% to 72.31%. CuO NPs shown antibacterial properties against both gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms. At high concentrations of CuO NPs (1024 µg/mL) with the highest inhibitory zone observed against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus, and Staphylococci aureus. CuO NPs' effectiveness against HFF, a normal cell line, and K562 malignant cells was investigated. Various quantities of copper oxide nanoparticles were chosen and left to stand for 24 h. The results showed that while the inhibitory concentration (IC50) was found to be 590 µg/mL, cell viability was considerably reduced with an increased dose of CuO nanoparticles up to 63.6% at maximum concentration (500 μg/mL) compared to 86.59% for HFF cell viability.