Spherical MoO₃ Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Removal of Eriochrome Black T

Cetyl pyridinium chloride (CPyC)-capped stabilized stable spherical molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles (MoO3 NPs) were synthesized and explored for the degradation of the Eriochrome Black T dye and toxicity profiling via the seed germination assay. The results were supported with exhaustive analytical techniques such as diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering along with zeta potential, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis. The results from electron microscopic techniques, i.e., transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, corroborated the formation of spherical-shaped NPs of ∼10 nm. The NPs illustrate a high electrostatic interaction with the dye molecules and demonstrate good dye removal efficiency (96% in 10 min) because of their higher surface area. The active species (·OH > h+ > ·O2–) play a prominent role in photocatalytic degradation of dye molecules by NPs. They were also found to assist seed germination as compared to pure Mo. Further, the cytotoxic properties of NPs were also analyzed on the cervical cancer cell line, i.e., HeLa cells. The NPs showed good anti-cancerous activity with an IC50 value of 12.79 μg/mL, incorporating the synergistic activity of CPyC and MoO3.