Bactericidal, antioxidant, and dye degradation potential of silver nanoparticles synthesized using Citrus limon leaves extract

The present study highlights the sunlight-assisted, environment-friendly production of Ag NPs using lemon leaf extract as a reducing and capping agent. Characterization via UV-Vis spectroscopy, FTIR, and SEM-EDX confirmed the development of flower-shaped Ag NPs with an average diameter of 80 nm. A surface plasmon resonance band at 420 nm and FTIR bands at 400–600 cm −1 indicated successful production of Ag NPs. Elemental analysis discovered Ag (20.94%) with Al, K, O, C, and Mg traces. The Ag NPs exhibited robust antimicrobial activity against B. licheniformis , E. coli , and Aeromonas , with inhibition zones (ZOI) 22.0 ± 0.82, 25.33 ± 0.47, and 27.0 ± 0.82 mm, respectively, comparable to rifampicin. The antioxidant activity of Ag NPs (IC 50 = 86.50 µ g/mL) was comparable to that of ascorbic acid (IC 50 = 86.19 µ g/mL) and superior to lemon leaf extract (IC 50 = 102.03 µ g/mL). They also showed significant photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO) (83.64%) and methylene blue (MB) (74.47%), following pseudo-first-order kinetics. Thus, Ag NPs could substitute available antibiotics, photocatalysts, and antioxidants.