Eco‐Friendly Synthesis of Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles Using Gum Arabic Polymer: Examining Their Photocatalytic Efficiency and Cytotoxicity

Abstract

In this paper, cobalt oxide nanoparticles (Co3O4 nanoparticles) were fabricated via a sol–gel method utilizing gum arabic polymer as a nontoxic reducing agent. To explore the characterization of the Co3O4 nanoparticles, different analyses were conducted. XRD outcome emphasized that the particle size of Co3O4 nanoparticles was between 36 nm and 42 nm, while the FESEM images showed that the Co3O4 nanoparticles were agglomerated due to their small size and spherical shape. Following these suitable characterization outcomes, the photocatalytic activity of Co3O4 nanoparticles was done on organic dye methylene blue (MB) decolorization under UVA light, and the outcomes were indicative of 92% degradation after 140 min. Over and above that, the cytotoxicity effects of Co3O4 nanoparticles were examined against the noncancer cells (L929) and HepG2 cells via MTT assay, and the IC50 amount for cancer cells was around 475 µg/mL.