Prunus armeniaca Assisted Green Synthesis of Fe₂O₃/NiO Nanohybrids Using Unripened Fruit Extract for Remediation of Acid Orange 7 Dye: A Sustainable Environmental Cleaner Approach

An alarming increase in pollution due to untreated dye wastes from industries is offering challenges to scientists to utilize a greener approach for water treatment. The current project is a non-toxic and eco-friendly green synthesis of iron-oxide (Fe₂O₃) and nickel-oxide (NiO) nanohybrids from an aqueous extract of Prunus armeniaca (apricot) unripe fruit (used as a capping and reducing agent). The synthesized nanohybrids are categorized by toxicity assessment, UV-visible, FTIR, SEM, Zeta Potential, NTA and XRD analyses and are enhanced for Acid Orange 7 (AO7) dye remediation. The maximum amount of remediation is observed by taking the concentration of dye at 0.002 g/L, concentration of Fe₂O₃/NiO nanohybrids at 0.02/0.04 g/L respectively, temperature of 70 °C at pH five and H₂O₂ of 0.004% concentration. The treated dye samples have been used to measure various water quality parameters exhibiting COD (82.1%) and TOC (81.1%). The toxicity assessment is 2.008% (Fe₂O₃) and 1.434% (NiO).