Phyco-fabrication of bimetallic nanoparticles (zinc–selenium) using aqueous extract of Gracilaria corticata and its biological activity potentials

Abstract Zinc selenium nanoparticles (ZnSe NPs) are widely used in many industrial, environmental and biomedical fields. However, the biological potential of ZnSe NPs has not been studied in detail. The present study focused on ZnSe NPs algae-based synthesis using aqueous extract of seaweed, Gracilaria corticata. Successfully synthesized ZnSe NPs were characterized by analytical methods such as UV–Vis, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM, DLS, Zeta potential and EDX analyses; additionally, the biological function of ZnSe NPs was performed. The ZnSe NPs exhibited a certain absorbance peak at 350–400 nm in the UV–vis spectrum. The FTIR showed the possible functional groups associated with biomolecules involved the ZnSe NPs synthesis. SEM and TEM demonstrated that ZnSe NPs were spherical in shape with size range of 50-250. XRD and EDX showed NPs crystallite size of 55.5 nm and their elemental composition that constitute selenium and zinc (1:1.5 ratio). These NPs showed antioxidant activity about 67% and antibacterial activity against broad spectrum of bacterial strains. Biofilm inhibition by ZnSe NPs was occurred on P. aeruginosa and B. subtilis at 50 and 40 μg/ml. Anticancer activity against HTB-9 (ATCC 5637) and KB (ATCC CCL-17) with IC50 of 19.24 and 28.42 μg/ml. In conclusion, the green synthesis of ZnSe NPs can provide the requisite criteria for therapeutic and preventive applications.