Biosynthesis of Nanoparticles by Microorganisms and Their Applications

Abstract

The development of eco-friendly technologies in material synthesis is of considerable importance to expand their biological applications. Nowadays, a variety of inorganic nanoparticles with well-defined chemical composition, size, and morphology have been synthesized by using different microorganisms, and their applications in many cutting-edge technological areas have been explored. This paper highlights the recent developments of the biosynthesis of inorganic nanoparticles including metallic nanoparticles, oxide nanoparticles, sulfide nanoparticles, and other typical nanoparticles. Different formation mechanisms of these nanoparticles will be discussed as well. The conditions to control the size/shape and stability of particles are summarized. The applications of these biosynthesized nanoparticles in a wide spectrum of potential areas are presented including targeted drug delivery, cancer treatment, gene therapy and DNA analysis, antibacterial agents, biosensors, enhancing reaction rates, separation science, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The current limitations and future prospects for the synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles by microorganisms are discussed.

Laser-targeted photofabrication of gold nanoparticles inside cells

“…Biosynthesis of nanoparticles is known to occur in a number of different organisms 28 , and existing reports of longer-term (non light-based) reduction of gold ion solution inside cells 12,13 have been proposed to depend on cellular enzymes or processes. These processes occurring in cells should raise the overall background level of particles, but occur over longer time scales than the photoreduction results presented here, allowing us to confine the reduction to a laser focus region (Figs 2a and 3a).…”

Effect of Nanoparticles on Biodiversity of Soil and Water Microorganism Community

“…These antibacterial/microbial effects of NPs lead a potential problem to the biodiversity. Researchers are trying to synthesise NPs in green route and enzyme route so that the synthesized NPs are less hazardous [36,37]. So these NPs have weaker effect on the soil-water-air microbes.…”

Formation of Variously Shaped Gold Nanoparticles by Anabaena laxa

“…Non-spherical particles also demonstrate catalytic activity on textured surfaces and the enhancement of the surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy SERS effect [14]. Some NPs have been examined as antibacterial agents [15,16]. Extensive studies on irregular metallic NPs result from their possible application in biomedicine, since an important feature of these NPs is the appearance of a plasmon band in the near-infrared region.…”

“…Nanoparticles obtained by biological processes possess the same features and are applied in the same way as those synthesized by classic chemical methods [15,16]. Therefore, engaging various organisms, such as bacteria, fungi [21] and algae [22][23][24] to plants [25], is an interesting alternative to the chemical and physical methods of producing metal nanoparticles (MeNPs).…”

“…The intracellular processes of formation comprise the transportation of ions into microbial cells to form nanoparticles due to the oxidoreductive activity of appropriate enzymes. Extracellular synthesis comprises the capturing of metal ions on the surface of the cells, followed by the reduction of cations [16]. The morphology of the biosynthesized nanoparticles depends on various parameters, such as temperature, pH, the ratio between biomass and ion concentrations and the duration of the process [12,28].…”