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The present study is focused on the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) utilizing endophytic fungus Talaromyces purpureogenus, isolated from Taxus baccata Linn. Extracellular extract of Talaromyces purpureogenus has shown occurrence of secondary metabolites viz. terpenoids and phenols. Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy analysis showed the presence of 16 compounds. Techniques like Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, field emission gun scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction were employed to characterize the synthesized AgNPs. UV–Vis spectroscopy showed sharp peaks at 380–470 nm which indicates the presence of metallic silver. FTIR analysis showed the presence of various functional groups like phenols, hydroxyl groups, and primary amines. In DLS, Z-average size and PdI of synthesized AgNPs were 240.2 r.nm and 0.720 respectively, with zeta potential − 19.6 mV. In FEG-SEM and HRTEM the spherical AgNPs showed diameter in the range of 30–60 nm. In EDS analysis the weight percent of Ag is 67.26% and atomic percent is 43.13%. From XRD analysis the size of AgNPs was found to be 49.3 nm with face-centered cubic crystalline nature of fungal synthesized AgNPs. These nanoparticles have shown significant antibacterial activity against tested strains viz. Listeria monocytogenes (13 ± 0.29 mm), Escherichia coli (17 ± 0.14 mm), Shigella dysenteriae (18 ± 0.21 mm) and Salmonella typhi (14 ± 0.13 mm). These synthesized AgNPs have shown effective free radical scavenging activity against 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl. The present study showed that the endophytic fungus Talaromyces purpureogenus can be used as a prominent source to synthesize AgNPs by using biological, ecofriendly, and in a non-toxic way accompanied by antibacterial and antioxidant properties which further can reduce the harvesting pressure faced by Taxus baccata. Graphical Abstract

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Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are considered one of the most significant materials in nanoelectronic device applications because they can be used in the fabrication of both CNT-inorganic hybrid structures and CNT-organic composite materials. Also, the study of the electrical properties of these materials has its own fundamental and technological significance. Here, we report on low temperature charge transport characteristics (down to 4.2 K in the magnetic fields up to 11 T) of multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-polypyrrole (PPy) coaxial composite fibrils synthesized by a facile electrochemical polymerization method. Two types of samples were synthesized by carrying out electrochemical polymerization at room temperature (RT) for different durations of 90 and 45 min, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy studies indicated that the diameters of as-prepared MWCNT-PPy fibril samples were ∼1.5 μm and 0.5 μm, respectively. The dc electrical resistance of the two samples was ∼103 and 102 Ω at RT and exhibited a pronounced temperature dependence, which is indicative of the hopping process being dominant. Furthermore, a large positive magnetoresistance (MR) of ∼29% and ∼18% is displayed at 4.2 K, which switched to negative MR with a maximum magnitude of ∼11% and ∼15% at 10 K for the two samples, respectively. The switching of MR as a function of temperature showed the dominance of two important competing phenomena, namely, wave function shrinkage and forward interference of electron waves.