Vol:.(1234567890) Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics (2018) 29:20840–20855 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-0227-2 1 3 Green synthesis of antibacterial bimetallic Ag–Cu nanoparticles for catalytic reduction of persistent organic pollutants Muhammad Ismail 1  · M. I. Khan 1  · Shahid Ali Khan 3,4  · Mughal Qayum 2  · Murad Ali Khan 1  · Yasir Anwar 6  · Kalsoom Akhtar 7  · Abdullah M. Asiri 4,5  · Sher Bahadar Khan 4,5 Received: 22 June 2018 / Accepted: 13 October 2018 / Published online: 24 October 2018 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract In this report, we used facile, active, cheap, re-usable and high surface area catalyst for the synthesis of green substrate turmeric (Curcuma longa) powder support mixed silver copper (Ag–Cu/TP), copper nickel (Cu–Ni/TP) and nickel silver (Ni–Ag/TP) nanoparticles. For nanoparticles synthesis the turmeric powder were kept in 0.5 M aqueous metal salt solu- tion and then treated with aqueous solution of NaBH 4 for in situ conversion of metal ions into their nanoparticles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray difraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) confrm the formation of nanoma- terials. Silver mix nanoparticles show excellent activities against Escherichia coli (E. coli). The prepared nanoparticles were employed for the reduction of fuoroquinolone antibiotics ciprofoxacin (CIP) and levofoxacin (LVO) as well as for Methyl orange (MO), Congo red (CR), Methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) dyes. Ag–Cu/TP catalyst showed excellent catalytic activity for the reductive transformation of antibiotics as well as for the remediation of MO, CR, MB and RhB dyes. The rate constants of pseudo frst order reaction for CIP and LVO were 1.27 × 10 −3  s −1 and 1.52 × 10 −3  s −1 respectively. Ag–Cu/TP also showed excellent recyclability till the 5th cycle for MO reduction. The abundant nature, low cost, excellent reusability and efective catalytic degradation make Ag–Cu/TP suitable candidates for the reduction of organic molecules. 1 Introduction Nanotechnology is an attractive area of science that the ofering materials showing structural characteristics between those of bulk materials and atoms in which one of its dimen- sions is at least in the nano range. Research on nanoparticles has been increased extensively due to their remarkable opti- cal, chemical, physical, mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties [1]. Green chemistry is the use of chemical tech- niques, routes and methodologies that decrease or eradicate the use or production of feedstock’s, products, byproducts, reagents and solvents, etc. that are detrimental to human health or to their environment. Thus, the main objective of green chemistry is the reduction of hazardous substances associated with processes and products that are crucial to the economy of the world and to maintain the quality of life that we enjoy through green chemistry [2, 3]. Worldwide demands for development of environmentally friendly, cost-efective and novel approaches of chemical processes are required for pollution control. The growing development of green chemistry is due to the fact that ecof- riendly processes are economically and environmentally on * Sher Bahadar Khan sbkhan@kau.edu.sa 1 Department of Chemistry, Kohat University of Science & Technology, Kohat 26000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan 2 Department of Pharmacy, Kohat University of Science & Technology, Kohat 26000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan 3 Department of Chemistry, University of Swabi, Anbar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 23561, Pakistan 4 Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia 5 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P. O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia 6 Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia 7 Division of Nano Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea