Abstract
Bionanotechnology, the use of biological resources to produce novel, valuable nanomaterials, has witnessed tremendous developments over the past two decades. This eco-friendly and sustainable approach enables the synthesis of numerous, diverse types of useful nanomaterials for many medical, commercial, and scientific applications. Countless reviews describing the biosynthesis of nanomaterials have been published. However, to the best of our knowledge, no review has been exclusively focused on the in vivo biosynthesis of inorganic nanomaterials. Therefore, the present review is dedicated to filling this gap by describing the many different facets of the in vivo biosynthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) using living eukaryotic cells and organisms—more specifically, live plants and living biomass of several species of microalgae, yeast, fungus, mammalian cells, and animals. It also highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the synthesis methodologies and the NP characteristics, bio-applications, and proposed synthesis mechanisms. This comprehensive review also brings attention to enabling a better understanding between the living organisms themselves and the synthesis conditions that allow their exploitation as nanobiotechnological production platforms as these might serve as a robust resource to boost and expand the bio-production and use of desirable, functional inorganic nanomaterials.
Highlights
The present review introduces the bio-applications of the as-obtained nanomaterials whenever available
Gold accumulation in the plant increased with time. This yielded the in vivo production of Au NPs that could be found in the roots, stems, and leaves
In the first step of the NP recovery process, the biomass stream from the centrifuge is washed with thiourea to remove the NPs that are adsorbed on the external cell surface [83,85]
Summary
Nanomaterials are defined as materials with any external dimension in the order of 1–100 nm [1]. The present review extensively summarizes findings related exclusively to the green production of inorganic nanomaterials using living eukaryotic cells and organisms, namely live plants, living biomass of several species of microalgae, yeast, fungus, mammalian cells, and animals. It discusses the various methodologies devised by researchers to exploit these natural, renewable resources in the field of bionanotechnology, the different inorganic nanomaterials bioproduced and their characterization. A similar PFD can be applied to any in vitro biosynthesis process
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