Synthesis of Bimetallic BiPO₄/ZnO Nanocomposite: Enhanced Photocatalytic Dye Degradation and Antibacterial...

Multidrug-resistant strains (MDRs) are becoming a major concern in a variety of settings, including water treatment and the medical industry. Well-dispersed catalysts such as BiPO₄, ZnO nanoparticles (NPs), and different ratios of BiPO₄/ZnO nanocomposites (NCs) were synthesized through hydrothermal treatments. The morphological behavior of the prepared catalysts was characterized using XRD, Raman spectra, PL, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS), SEM, EDX, and Fe-SEM. MDRs were isolated and identified by the 16s rDNA technique as belonging to B. flexus, B. filamentosus, P. stutzeri, and A. baumannii. The antibacterial activity against MDRs and the photocatalytic methylene blue (MB) dye degradation activity of the synthesized NPs and NCs were studied. The results demonstrate that the prepared BiPO₄/ZnO-NCs (B1Z4-75:300; NCs-4) caused a maximum growth inhibition of 20 mm against A. baumannii and a minimum growth inhibition of 12 mm against B. filamentosus at 80 μg mL^-1 concentrations of the NPs and NCs. Thus, NCs-4 might be a suitable alternative to further explore and develop as an antibacterial agent. The obtained results statistically justified the data (p ≤ 0.05) via one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). According to the results of the antibacterial and photocatalytic study, we selected the best bimetallic NCs-4 for the photoexcited antibacterial effect of MDRs, including Gram ve⁺ and Gram ve^- strains, via UV light irradiation. The flower-like NCs-4 composites showed more effectiveness than those of BiPO₄, ZnO, and other ratios of NCs. The results encourage the development of flower-like NCs-4 to enhance the photocatalytic antibacterial technique for water purification.