The toxicity of the ecosystem has increased recently as a result of the increased industrial wastewater loaded with organic contaminants, including methylene blue (MB), which exerts serious damage to the environment. Thus, the present work aims to green the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) and to evaluate their degradability of notorious MB dye, as well as their antimicrobial activities. Ag-NPs were synthesized by Cytobacillus firmus extract fully characterized by UV-vis, TEM, DLS, XRD, and FTIR. Ag-NPs showed good antibacterial and antifungal activities against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Enterococcus feacalis ATCC 29212, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, and Candida albicans ATCC 90028. Moreover, Ag-NPs exhibited a high biodegradability level (98%) of MB dye after 8 h of co-incubation in the presence of sunlight. Additionally, the phytotoxicity of treated MB dye-contaminated water sample showed good germination of Vicia faba as compared with non-treated MB dye-contaminated solution. In conclusion, the herein biosynthesized Ag-NPs demonstrated its feasibility of the purification of contaminated water from microbes and methylene blue dye and the probability of reusing purified water for agricultural purposes.
Keywords: industrial wastewater; methylene blue (MB) dye; photocatalytic degradation; phytotoxicity; silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs).