Facile‐Biogenic ZnO Nanoparticle Synthesis for Anticancer Investigation Against MCF‐7 Cells and Photodegradation of Alizarin Red Under UV Light Illumination

ABSTRACT Here, we report the plant‐based synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) using the alcoholic fruit extract of Phoenix sylvestris . The metabolites found in the aqueous extract of date fruit extract serve as an oxidizing, reducing, and capping agent for synthesizing biogenic ZnO NPs. The synthesized ZnO─NPs are characterized using analytical techniques. XRD results confirm the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO and PL analysis revealed several defect types with zinc vacancies (V Zn ), zinc interstitials (Zn i ), or oxygen interstitials (O i ) being induced by calcination at 500 °C. The cytotoxicity study ZnO NPs was evaluated by using the 3‐(4, 5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay against human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF7) with an IC 50 value of 21.61 µg/mL. The ZnO NPs' photocatalytic efficiency was evaluated for Alizarin Red dye (ARZ) degradation. The effects of catalyst dosage were investigated in photocatalysis processes and the highest photodegradation efficiency was achieved at 80 mg ZnO dosage using UV light radiation.