Co3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) were formed using hydrothermal synthesis method and various surfactants to study the effect of changing surface morphology on catalytic and antibacterial activities. FT-IR, TEM, SEM, BET, XRD, and XPS analyses were performed to characterize the NPs. It was observed that as the morphology of Co3O4 changes, it creates differences in the reduction efficiency of organic dyes and p-nitrophenol (p-NP), which are toxic to living organisms and widely used in industry. The reaction rate constants (Kapp) for Co3O4-urea, Co3O4-ed, and Co3O4-NaOH in the reduction of p-NP were found to be 1.86 × 10-2 s-1, 1.83 × 10-2 s-1, and 2.4 × 10-3 s-1, respectively. In the presence of Co3O4-urea catalyst from the prepared nanoparticles, 99.29% conversion to p-aminophenol (p-AP) was observed, while in the presence of the same catalyst, 98.06% of methylene blue (MB) was removed within 1 h. The antibacterial activity of Co3O4 particles was compared with five standard antibiotics for both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The results obtained indicate that the antimicrobial activity of the synthesized Co3O4 particles has a remarkable inhibitory effect on the growth of various pathogenic microorganisms. The current work could be an innovative and beneficial search for both biomedical and wastewater treatment applications.
Keywords: Antimicrobial activity; Co3O4; Hydrothermal synthesis; Methylene blue; p-NP.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.