Enhanced Industrial Dye Degradation and Antibacterial Activity Supported by the Molecular Docking Study of Yttrium and Carbon Sphere-Doped Lanthanum Oxide Nanostructures

Abstract

As the population grows, the scientific community remains focused on researching new materials, methods, and devices to ensure the availability of safe drinking water. The main aim of this research was to decrease the recombination rate of the charge carriers of La 2 O 3 and enhance the catalytic and antimicrobial activity by employing Y/Cs-doped La 2 O 3, respectively. In the current study, different concentrations of yttrium (Y) and a fixed amount of carbon spheres (Cs) doped into lanthanum oxide (La 2 O 3 ) nanostructures (NSs) were synthesized by the coprecipitation technique. Cs are used as a cocatalyst as they have a high surface area and small size attributed to increased active sites and decreased recombination rate. Moreover, Y was further incorporated as it activates the generation of reactive oxygen species in the inhibition zone, enhancing the antibacterial activity and reducing the emission intensity. Advanced techniques were utilized to determine the structural properties, optical emission and absorption, elemental composition, and d-spacing of the synthesized samples. The reported ternary catalyst works efficiently, improving the catalytic activity and bactericidal potential. Moreover, in silico molecular docking studies, Cs-doped La 2 O 3 and Y/Csdoped La 2 O 3 nanostructures toward DNA gyrase Escherichia coli showed good efficacy for antibacterial activity.