Biosynthesis of silver-doped nickel oxide nanoparticles and evaluation of their photocatalytic and cytotoxicity properties

In the present study, Ag-doped nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO-NPs) were synthesized through a sol–gel method using of Cydonia oblonga plant extract as a new green stabilizing agent and employed Ni(NO 3 ) 2 ·6H 2 O and AgNO 3 as nickel and silver sources, respectively. The synthesized Ag-doped NiO-NPs have been calcinated at 400 °C. Formation of Ag-doped NiO-NPs was confirmed by the means of XRD, FESEM/EDAX, FTIR, TGA/DTG, UV–Vis spectrophotometry, and VSM techniques, and effect of silver diluent doping on the photocatalytic properties of NiO-NPs was investigated. The XRD results have indicated that the size of Ag-doped NiO-NPs has increased as the Ag concentration had been raised. The obtained particle size in optimized conditions (Ag-doped 3%) has been reported to be about 9.24 nm. In the following, the photocatalytic activity of Ag-doped NiO-NPs has investigated the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye, and according to the obtained results, about 75% of RhB degraded under UV-light after 200 min. The cytotoxicity effect of Ag-doped NiO-NPs on PC12 cell lines has been investigated by MTT assay, and the results showed that Ag-doped NiO-NPs inhibited cancer cells (IC 50 ̴ 35 µg/ml). Graphic abstract