Lawsonia inermis mediated synthesis of ZnO/Fe2O3 nanorods for photocatalysis – Biological treatment for the enhanced effluent treatment, antibacterial and antioxidant activities

• The combination of photocatalytic degradation, with biological treatment of bio enzyme with photocatalysts such as LI-ZnO and LI-ZnO/Fe 2 O 3 nanorods. • Lawsonia inermis leaves extract was act as a capping agent for synthesis of the samples. • The synthesized nanorods are characterized using XRD, FT-IR, UV–Visible, and fluorescence. • The efficiency of the treatment was assessed through the decrease in the intermediate product and which was confirmed through HPLC studies. • The enhanced degradation of effluent with 98% efficiency was accomplished on the five days post-treated LI-ZnO/Fe 2 O 3 /H 2 O 2 on the biological degradation process. The major objective of this report is to inspect the combination of photocatalytic degradation, with biological treatment of bio enzyme with photocatalysts such as LI-ZnO and LI-ZnO/Fe 2 O 3 nanorods and Lawsonia inermis leaves extract was act as a capping agent for synthesis of the samples. The synthesized nanorods were characterized using XRD, FT-IR, UV–Visible, and fluorescence. LI-ZnO/Fe 2 O 3 nanorods have lower charge carrier recombination and charge transfer resistance than LI-ZnO nanorods. Photocatalytic degradation was done with LI-ZnO and LI-ZnO/Fe 2 O 3 , in the presence of H 2 O 2 and bio enzyme. Coupling of bio enzyme with LI-ZnO and LI-ZnO/Fe 2 O 3 showed a negative synergetic effect due to the rapid inactivation of bio enzyme. However, the biological treatment was more effective than only bio enzyme used in the post-treatment of photocatalytic treated effluent. The efficiency of the treatment was assessed through the decrease in the intermediate product and which was confirmed through HPLC studies. Moreover, the enhanced degradation of effluent with 98% efficiency was accomplished on the five days post-treated LI-ZnO/Fe 2 O 3 /H 2 O 2 on the biological degradation process.