Biogenic Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Cnidium officinale Extract and Their Catalytic Reduction of 4-Nitroaniline

Abstract

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with two different morphologies were synthesized using aqueous extract of Cnidium officinale rhizomes under different reaction conditions and applied to the facile aqueous phase reduction of 4-nitroaniline (4-NA) as catalysts. The synthesized AgNPs are characterized by UV–Visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) method and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. HR-TEM showed that the synthesized AgNPs had two different morphological forms; truncated triangular prism shapes with a mean size of ~35 nm and spherical shapes with a mean size of ~9 nm. The HR-TEM and XRD results are consistent with the standard values. The catalytic activities of both AgNPs were compared on the reduction of 4-NA in water by NaBH4 as a reducing agent. The reduction of 4-NA was monitored using UV–Visible spectroscopy. The ~9 nm (spherical) sized AgNPs showed superior catalytic activity than the larger AgNPs. The calculated rate constant (k) for the catalytic reduction of 4-nitroanilie by spherical AgNPs was 11.16 × 10−3 s−1.