Phytosynthesis of Metal Nanoparticles

Abstract

The field of nanotechnology has created great interest among researchers due to its remarkable outcomes in different fields of optoelectronics, medical, pharmaceuticals, chemical, and agricultural importance. It is an emerging cutting-edge technology involving different methodologies for the synthesis of nanoparticles of particular size and shapes. Development of experimental protocols for synthesis of metal nanoparticles of specific size and shape is a necessary advancement of nanotechnology. Although physical and chemical methods have been successfully used to synthesize metal nanoparticles, there is a persistent necessity to develop eco-friendly and sustainable techniques for the synthesis of nanoparticles. Biosynthesis of nanoparticles using a number of fungi, bacteria, actinomycetes, lichen, and viruses have been reported till date but the plant system has emerged as an efficient system due to its distinctive characters like easy availability, low cost, green approach, simpler downstream processing, etc. In the plant system, biosynthesis process is more useful if nanoparticles are produced extracellularly using plants or their extracts and in a controlled approach related to their size, dispersity, and shape. Plant system can also be suitably scaled up for large-scale synthesis of nanoparticles. However, some aspects like role of different biomolecules in synthesis of nanoparticles, understanding the biological mechanism of synthesis process needs to be considered elaborately. In this chapter, we have discussed briefly about plants as a prominent tool for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles. Moreover, different methods of synthesis of nanoparticles, different mechanisms involved in the synthesis process, and also the potential applications of metal nanoparticles have also been discussed.