Green Synthesis of Nanostructured Silver Metal Particals and Catalytic Degradation of Toxic Methylene Blue Dye

Abstract The growth and development of bio-synthesized noble metal nanoparticles have attracted great amount of interest in field of nanotechnology due to their potential use for human benefits. The fungal synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles like silver nanoparticle is a sustainable, eco- friendly and green chemistry approach that amalgamate Mycology, Biotechnology and nanotechnology. Accordingly silver nanoparticles (silver nanoparticles) can be synthesized by physical, chemical and biological methods respectively. The aim of this research is to carry green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (silver nanoparticle) i.e. biological method using aqueous fungal extract of penicillium rubens. The aqueous fungal extract was added to silver nitrate solution where the color of the silver nitrate reaction medium was changed from Pale yellow to brown which indicates reduction of silver ions to silver nanoparticles. Thus synthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Visible spectroscopy, which shows characterized peak between 400-420 nm. In order to classify the effective functional molecules responsible for the reduction and stabilization of fungal synthesized silver nanoparticles, the FTIR spectrum was examined. Optimization of production of silver nanoparticles was done by changing parameters such as pH, temperature and concentration of silver nitrate solution and determined by absorbance in UV-Visible spectrophotometer. Thus, it is concluded that the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using extracellular fungal filtrate was simple, eco-friendly and robust. Also the dye reduction capabilities of silver nanoparticles were examined. Effective degradation of Methylene blue dye was observed giving 97 % efficiency in 90 minutes of exposure time.