# Biological applications of yttrium oxide nanocomposites synthesized from Aspergillus penicillioides and their potential role in environmental remediation

## TL;DR

This study explores using a fungus to create yttrium oxide nanocomposites that can clean up lead and nickel from wastewater.

## Contribution

The novel use of Aspergillus penicillioides to synthesize Y2O3 nanocomposites for metal remediation is introduced.

## Key findings

- Y2O3 nanocomposites synthesized by Aspergillus penicillioides effectively adsorb lead and nickel from wastewater.
- The nanocomposites showed 60% adsorption efficiency for lead and nickel at specific concentrations.
- The nanocomposites demonstrated biological applications like antibiotic activity and antioxidant effects.

## Abstract

Industrial effluent contains hazardous metals, such as lead and nickel, which must be removed to prevent serious illnesses. The biological production of nanocomposites, which utilizes a range of biological resources, including microbes and plant extracts, as reducing and stabilizing agents, has garnered considerable attention in recent years. The goal of the current study is to generate Y2O3 nanocomposites in a unique, feasible, and biodegradable manner by using biological substances for the remediation of lead and nickel in the wastewater. The characterization outcomes demonstrated that Aspergillus penicillioides was capable of extracellular synthesis of Y2O3 nanocomposites with a spherical shape, and their size ranges from 31.4 to 61.9 nm. Furtherly, FTIR reveals that the existence of fungal biomolecules plays a vital role in the synthesis of the nanocomposite. The Y2O3 nanocomposites exhibited an excellent adsorption rate of 60% for lead and nickel at concentrations of 4 µg/mL and 2 µg/mL, respectively, under a pH of 6, thus demonstrating their efficacy as a catalyst in the photocatalytic reduction of these metals. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm validated multilayer adsorption on a heterogeneous surface with changing adsorption energies, whereas the constant parameter in the reaction was identified by pseudo-first-order kinetics. AAS is employed to determine the concentrations of desired metal ions. The biological applications, which include antibiotic activity, bacterial protein leakage, and antioxidant activity, were demonstrated. Biocompatibility of the Y2O3 nanocomposite was determined by the hemolytic assay. Ultimately, our study exhibits the novel bio-based Aspergillus penicillioides-arbitrated Y2O3 nanocomposites that work well as a bioremediating agent.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-21104-4.