Synthesis and Characterization of Se-doped ZnO Nanoparticles by Electrochemical Method: Photodegradation Kinetics of Indigo Carmine Dye and Study of Antimicrobial, Antimitotic Activities of Se-doped ZnO Nanoparticles

In the past few decades selenium nanoparticles have received a considerable importance because of its effective biological applications. Therefore, nano-structured Se-doped ZnO photocatalyst has been synthesized by electrochemical method, which is a simple and an inexpensive method. The characterization techniques included are UV-Visible spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, SEM and X-ray diffraction techniques. From UV-Vis spectroscopy and by using Tauc plot the band gap energy of Se-doped ZnO nanoparticles is calculated and is found to be 2.6eV. The IR spectra showed the peak at 427 cm-1 for ZnO bonds and peaks at 518cm-1, 612cm-1, 727cm-1 and 1373cm-1 correspond to the presence of Se-ZnO bending and stretching vibrations. From the XRD data and with the help of Williamson-Hall plot the crystalline size is calculated and it is found to be ~25.5 nm. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized Se-doped ZnO nanoparticles was investigated by the kinetics of degradation of Indigo carmine dye. The degradation efficiency of Se-doped ZnO was found to be ~96%. The antimicrobial and antimitotic activities were evaluated for the synthesized ZnO and Se-doped ZnO nanoparticles against the control.