Abstract
This study describes a simple green method for the synthesis of Limnophila rugosa leaf-extract-capped silver and gold nanoparticles without using any expensive toxic reductant or stabilizer. The noble metal nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and dynamic light scattering (DLS) method. It has been found that the biosynthesized silver and gold nanoparticles are nearly spherical in shape with a mean particle size distribution of 87.5 nm and 122.8 nm, respectively. XRD and SAED patterns confirmed the crystalline nanostructure of the metal nanoparticles. FTIR spectra revealed the functional groups of biomolecules presented in the extract possibly responsible for reducing metallic ions and stabilizing formed nanoparticles. The biosynthesized metal nanoparticles have potential application in catalysis. Compared to previous reports, Limnophila rugosa leaf-extract-capped silver and gold nanoparticles exhibited a good catalytic activity in the reduction of several derivatives of nitrophenols including 1,4-dinitrobenzene, 2-nitrophenol, 3-nitrophenol, and 4-nitrophenol.
Highlights
In the past two decades, noble metal nanoparticles (MNPs), especially silver (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), have increasingly attained great attention from the scientific community as well as society due to their distinctive biological, physical, chemical, and optical properties [1, 2]
The first report about using a plant extract for the synthesis of noble MNPs was recognized in 2003 when Gardea-Torresdey et al showed the effectiveness of Alfalfa sprouts extract in the formation of AgNPs under normal conditions within a short time [16]
The possible functional groups presented in the dried extract from LR leaves and fabricated solid MNPs were determined by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra recorded on a Bruker Tensor 27 (Germany) in the range of 4000-500 cm-1
Summary
In the past two decades, noble metal nanoparticles (MNPs), especially silver (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), have increasingly attained great attention from the scientific community as well as society due to their distinctive biological, physical, chemical, and optical properties [1, 2] They have found many applications in diverse areas, such as electronics [3], biotechnology [4, 5], beauty care products [6], drug delivery [7, 8], biosensing, and catalysis [9, 10]. The key drawback of this method is it is time consuming and ineffective compared to other advanced methods such as redox methods for converting nitrophenols to respective environmentally friendly compounds In this context, sodium borohydride (NaBH4) is widely used as an effective reducing agent for that purpose. The catalytic efficiency of LR-AgNPs and LRAuNPs in the reduction of 1,4-dinitrobenzene (1,4-DNB), 2nitrophenol (2-NP), 3-nitrophenol (3-NP), and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) by NaBH4 was evaluated in detail
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