Controlled silver and polyacrylic acid doped bismuth oxyiodide quantum dots: To degrade RhB and E. coli inactivation with computational validation

Co-precipitated Ag/PAA-BiOI QDs (silver/polyacrylic acid-bismuth oxide iodide quantum dots) were prepared with varying quantities of Ag and a fixed amount of PAA-doped BiOI. Bismuth-based semiconductor materials degrade dye pollutants owing to small size and significant bandgap energy. The novelty of this study is to control size, lower the recombination rate, and charge transport capabilities of BiOI using capping agent as PAA and metallic Ag at low-temperature synthesis. Crystal structure, phase composition, and percentage crystallinity (54.38 %) of synthesized QDs have been evaluated through X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Internal structure (QDs) morphology and particle size (4.32 ± 1.70 nm) have been investigated and calculated via Image J software using TEM images. Catalytic and antibacterial characteristics of QDs improved significantly, excellent dye degradation efficiency was measured as 85.77 % in acidic medium, and effective antimicrobial activities against Escherichia coli indicated by substantial inhibition zone measurement (5.55 mm) accomplished by 6 % Ag/PAA-BiOI. In silico investigations revealed that synthesized QDs potentially hinder DNA gyrase from E. coli enzyme in fatty acid pathway.