A comprehensive study on the influence of single and multiple phytochemicals in facilitating green synthesis of ZrO2 nanoparticles

In this work, we conducted an extensive study of fabrication of ZrO₂ NPs mediated by one type and mixture of plant secondary metabolites in three different calcination temperatures to investigate the influence of the type and concentration of phytochemicals in the green synthesis of nanoparticles. Gallic acid, which is a phenolic compound with strong antioxidant activity, enables to stabilize particle surfaces thereby preventing aggregation and agglomeration of particles. GC-MS and LC-HRMS analysis reveal that polar leaf extract as mixture of secondary metabolites contains ten volatile and forty-one polar compounds, respectively. The TGA/DTG experiments demonstrate that the type and concentration of secondary metabolites substantially influence the crystal formation and ultimately impact the size, morphology, surface texture, and acidity of ZrO₂ NPs. Well crystalline and homogenous ZrO₂ nanospheres were successfully formed by using gallic acid and polar leaf extract as biofuels with crystal size ranging from 6.30–61.92 nm and average particle size ranging from 26–39 nm. The green prepared-ZrO₂ NPs possess surface area from 6.37 to 76.02 m²/g, pore volume from 0.049 to 0.392 cm³/g, pore diameter from 4.17 up to 50.75 nm, and acidity from 0.0574 to 2.0966 mmol/g. Apart from that, this research also indicates that applied calcination temperature affects the features of the nanoparticles mentioned above, except for morphology.