Graphitic-carbon nitride and poly acrylic acid doped vanadium oxide for efficient catalytic and antimicrobial activity: In silico molecular docking studies

An eco-friendly co-precipitation technique was used to synthesize V₂O₅ nanostructures (NSs) doped polyacrylic acid (PAA) with different concentrations of graphitic-carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄). The research aimed to study the capability of pristine and doped V₂O₅ NSs for dye degradation and antibacterial activity with in silico molecular docking. A series of characterizations were conducted to determine the surface and structural, morphological and optical properties. Moderate results for catalytic degradation were observed against rhodamine B (RhB). Furthermore, antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria and in silico docking analysis for DHFR_{E. Coli} and DHPS_{E. Coli} shows excellent results for g-C₃N₄/PAA-V₂O₅, respectively. However, V₂O₅ attains fast recombination of electrons and holes with a low specific surface area, and moderate reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation limits antibacterial activity. To overcome this problem, V₂O₅ is capped with super absorbent polymer (PAA) to reduce the size of NSs, and the presence of the carboxyl group is effective in antibacterial activity. V₂O₅/PAA coupled with g-C₃N₄ helps to provide structural and chemical stability, reduce charge carriers, degrade dyes, have lower bandgap energy, and have effective antibacterial activity.