Bio-Fabrication of ZnO-CuO Nanoporous Composite and Its Application as Nanolarvicidal Agent for Malaria Vectors

Bio-fabrication of ZnO-CuO nanoporous composite was successfully synthesized using Gum Arabic. The morphology, elemental composition, surface plasmon resonance and functional groups bonds of the ZnO-CuO nanoporous composite were confirmed by SEM, EDX, UV-Visible and FTIR techniques respectively. Nanolarvicidal activity of ZnO-CuO nanoporous composite was tested against 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th instars of malaria vectors for 24 hours using different concentrations. The lethal concentrations (LC50) of ZnO-CuO nanoporous composite against 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th instars were found to be 8.841, 8.734, 8.963 and 10.557 mg/L respectively. Whereas, the LC90 of ZnO-CuO nanoporous composite against 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th instars were found to be 19.062, 28.063, 40.888 and 79.567 mg/L respectively. For all instars, the correlation coefficients were found in the range of 0.945 to 0.999 and it indicates concentration dependent larvicidal activity. It was observed that the lower the instar, the higher the larvicidal activity and conversely. Therefore, ZnO-CuO nanoporous composite could be used as nanolarvicidal agent especially for malaria vectors.