Green mediated synthesis of cerium oxide nanoparticles by using <i>Oroxylum indicum</i> for evaluation of catalytic and biomedical activity

Abstract

The present perspective emphasizes the green synthesis of CeO₂-NPs using <i>Oroxylum indicum</i> fruit extract. The synthesized NPs were characterized utilizing analytical techniques, including FT-IR, UV-vis, XRD, SEM-EDX, and VSM. Of them, XRD analysis ratifies the cubic fluorite crystal structure along with a particle size of 23.58 nm. EDX results support the presence of cerium and oxygen in a proper ratio. The surface morphology of NPs, however, was scrutinized using SEM. The lower IC₅₀ value (20.8 μg mL^-1) of NPs compared to the reference substance, ascorbic acid (33.2 μg mL^-1), demonstrates CeO₂-NPs to be a compatible antioxidant. Moreover, the drug-releasing capability of CeO₂-NPs was a buffer pH-dependent parameter. The acidic pH solution was 20.5%, while the basic pH solution was 16.9%. The drug-releasing capability was analyzed using the Higuchi model and Korsmeyer-Peppas kinetics. The values of the determination coefficient (<i>R</i> ²) were found to be 0.9944 and 0.9834, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of CeO₂-NPs was evaluated, considering methylene blue as a model dye. The degradation percentage was attained up to 56.77% after it had been exposed for 150 min. Apart from this, the synthesized NPs were screened against two fungus species, <i>Bipolaris sorokiniana</i> and <i>Fusarium</i>. The percentage of growth was measured at 56% and 49%, respectively.