AUTHOR=Jain Devendra , Shivani , Bhojiya Ali Asger , Singh Himmat , Daima Hemant Kumar , Singh Mandeep , Mohanty Santosh Ranjan , Stephen Bjorn John , Singh Abhijeet TITLE=Microbial Fabrication of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Evaluation of Their Antimicrobial and Photocatalytic Properties JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2020 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2020.00778 DOI=10.3389/fchem.2020.00778 ISSN=2296-2646 ABSTRACT=Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles have attracted significant interest due to their vast applications. However, green synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles is a challenge, and therefore, here we report zinc tolerant bacteria assisted microbial synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles. Furthermore, the effective antimicrobial potential and photocatalytic dye degradation capabilities of these nanoparticles are also evaluated. The ZnO nanoparticles are characterized using a range of physicochemical characterization techniques confirming nanoscale size, uniformspherical shape, and high negative surface charge. The ZnO nanoparticles showed considerable antibacterial and antifungal activities. Further, the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange under UV lamp was studied and results reveal that ZnO nanoparticles have good photocatalytic potential as well.