Antibacterial and Anticancer Activity of Magnesium Oxide and Silver Nanoparticles Prepared by Eco-Friendly Methods

In this work, magnesium oxide (MgO)- and silver (Ag)-nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized from plant extracts by means of green synthesis methods to investigate their optical and antibacterial activities. In accordance with X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) analysis, both of the samples have face-centered cubic (fcc) structure. The presence of absorption bands of Ag and MgO, respectively in the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra of Ag and MgO-NPs confirm more the successful formation of those materials. Both the samples reveal different morphologies where an interwoven network on which the NPs of Ag are located is observed for Ag nanostructures and a flower-like morphology is seen for MgO-NPs. Our prepared Ag and MgO-NPs exhibit excellent optical properties, which make them suitable for photocatalytic activities. Both of the samples show intense peaks in ultraviolet (UV) and visible regions, as respectively shown by UV-visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Ag and MgO-NPs also demonstrate extraordinary antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli as well as Staphylococcus aureus strains. Moreover, they possess considerable cytotoxicity and low cell viability, which make them suited as anticancer agents.