Green synthesis of BaSO@SiO core-shell and BaSO@ZIF-8 nanocomposite and assessment of their cytotoxicity effects and photocatalytic performance.

This article presents a new process for in situ synthesizing barium sulfate/tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) core-shell (BaSO@SiO) and barium sulfate/zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) nanocomposite (BaSO@ZIF-8). The patterns obtained from the X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis for compounds BaSO, SiO, and ZIF-8 showed orthorhombic, monoclinic, and cubic phases and space groups Pnma, C12/c1 and Pn-3 m. Furthermore, the confirmation of the synthesis of these compounds was achieved through the application of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images showed spherical morphology with uniform distribution. The photocatalytic efficacy of BaSO@SiO core-shell and BaSO@ZIF-8 nanocomposite was assessed in terms of their capacity to degrade Methylene blue (MB) dye (10 M), resulting in degradation percentages of 95.9% and 98.57% after 120 min, respectively. In the present study, the cellular toxicity of BaSO@SiO core-shell and BaSO@ZIF-8 nanocomposite was investigated on the B16-F0 cell line, and IC values were 232.2 and 537.5 µg/mL respectively.