Shankar S Shiv, Ahmad Absar, Sastry Murali
Materials Chemistry Division, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune 411 008, India.
Biotechnol Prog. 2003 Nov-Dec;19(6):1627-31. doi: 10.1021/bp034070w.
Development of biologically inspired experimental processes for the synthesis of nanoparticles is evolving into an important branch of nanotechnology. In this paper, we report on the use of Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) leaf extract in the extracellular synthesis of silver nanoparticles. On treating aqueous silver nitrate solution with geranium leaf extract, rapid reduction of the silver ions is observed leading to the formation of highly stable, crystalline silver nanoparticles in solution. Transmission electron microscopy analysis of the silver particles indicated that they ranged in size from 16 to 40 nm and were assembled in solution into quasilinear superstructures. The rate of reduction of the silver ions by the geranium leaf extract is faster than that observed by us in an earlier study using a fungus, Fusarium oxysporum, thus highlighting the possibility that nanoparticle biosynthesis methodologies will achieve rates of synthesis comparable to those of chemical methods. This study also represents an important advance in the use of plants over microorganisms in the biosynthesis of metal nanoparticles.
用于纳米颗粒合成的受生物启发的实验方法正逐渐发展成为纳米技术的一个重要分支。在本文中，我们报告了天竺葵（香叶天竺葵）叶提取物在细胞外合成银纳米颗粒中的应用。用天竺葵叶提取物处理硝酸银水溶液时，观察到银离子迅速还原，从而在溶液中形成高度稳定的结晶银纳米颗粒。对银颗粒的透射电子显微镜分析表明，它们的尺寸范围为16至40纳米，并在溶液中组装成准线性超结构。天竺葵叶提取物还原银离子的速率比我们早期使用尖孢镰刀菌进行的一项研究中观察到的速率要快，这突出了纳米颗粒生物合成方法将实现与化学方法相当的合成速率的可能性。这项研究也代表了在金属纳米颗粒生物合成中使用植物而非微生物方面的一项重要进展。
