One Pot Synthesis Of Colloidal Zirconium Oxide Nanoparticles Using Evolvulus Alsinoides Leaf Extract For Potential Bone Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

The number of people seeking alternative medicine is also growing exponentially. There is a growing interest in the field of phytomedicine not just because it's inexpensive but has lower side effects on normal cells when compared to allopathic medicine. Therefore, this research focuses on the synthesis of Zirconium oxide nanoparticles using Evolvulus alsinoides leaf extract and to find its efficiency in bone tissue engineering, optical engineering, photocatalysis, and high-κ dielectrics. Here we synthesized ZrO₂ NPs using an aqueous extract of Evolvulus alsinoides leaves, characterized the ZrO₂NPs using various techniques, evaluated its biocompatibility, and reported a facile one-pot method for the synthesis of colloidal stable Zirconium oxide nanoparticles. The results confirmed the ZrO₂ NPs formation by changing the color from greenish to dark yellow. The UV spectrum of NPs shows maximum absorbance at 285 nm, confirming the ZrO₂ formation, which is evidenced by the shift in maximum absorbance compared to the extract. The surface morphology was analyzed using SEM which revealed an aggregated morphology of NPs resulting from moisture in the sample. A biocompatibility study performed using Annexin V and Propidium iodide staining revealed the non-toxic nature of ZrO₂ NPs in Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Therefore, we conclude that eco-friendly ZrO₂ NPs can be used as potential candidates in various biomedical applications, including therapeutics and diagnostics, after validation via in-vitro and in-vivo application studies.