Abstract
In recent decades, it has been demonstrated that bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) possess a number of advantages over monometallic NPs, as the combination of metals results in important changes to their physicochemical properties. Synthesis of bimetallic NPs can be achieved through a number of methods, yet there are serious difficulties in controlling these protocols. Biological methods based on the use of microorganisms exhibit important advantages over traditional methods, which makes the search for organisms such as bacteria, yeast and fungi endowed with these abilities an important task. In this context, it has been found that Candida species are able to biosynthesize monometallic NPs, but their ability to form bimetallic NPs has not been investigated. CdHgS is a bimetallic NP of special interest, as it has been found useful in a number of applications; however, its preparation by traditional methods poses certain limitations, and the ability to obtain it through biological procedures has never been demonstrated. With this in mind, the major purpose of this study is to evaluate whether several Candida species were able to synthesize bimetallic NPs of CdHgS in a Cd4HgS5 phase. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the biological synthesis of bimetallic NPs in Candida species.
Highlights
Nanoparticles (NPs) are of great importance in our daily lives
We demonstrate that Candida species are capable of forming monometallic
Growth in Figure curves of control and metal-exposed C. albicans, C. glabrata and C. krusei resisted 1 mM Cd–Hg are Growth of the exposed cells was inhibited by the Cd–Hg mixture. These results indicate that even illustrated in Figure when C. albicans, C. glabrata and C. krusei can resist 1.0 mM Cd–Hg (Figure 1), they do not duplicate (Figure 2)—most likely because they use their metabolisms to survive and not for the generation of new cells
Summary
Nanoparticles (NPs) are of great importance in our daily lives. In vivo biosynthesis of NPs using organisms such as yeasts, bacteria and algae have demonstrated the availability to obtain these materials, as well as the possibility of removing hazardous elements from water, soil and industrial effluents [1]. In vivo remediation is generally believed to be an advantageous water treatment approach that allows the generation of useful materials. For this technique to be successful, the existence of multiple chemicals/reagents in contaminated water has to be further investigated. In the last decades it has been demonstrated that monometallic nanoparticles present disadvantages as compared to the bimetallic compounds. This is because the combination of two metals results in important changes in their physicochemical properties, such as unique size-dependent optical, electronic and catalytic effects that yield a better performance as compared to their monometallic counterparts [3,4,5]. A vast diversity of methods to synthetize monometallic NPs has been reported [4,6,7], but the controlled synthesis of bimetallic NPs is more difficult [4]
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