Green Synthesis of Nanoparticles using Fungal Extracts

Nanotechnology involves the synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) and paved the way for the possibility of applications in different fields such as pharmaceutical science, industry, environment and biosensor technology. The metal nanoparticles synthesis using fungal extract is gaining momentum due to their novel chemical, optical, electrical, and magnetic properties. The mycelial biomass is found to be more resistant against pH, temperature, agitation and pressure compared to bacterial and plant extract and thus more appropriate for industrial production. The nano-sized particles synthesized by green chemistry are of better quality than the ones made by chemical reduction methods such as laser ablation, metallic wire explosion, photochemical or radiation reduction and sonochemical method. The chemical methods can pose a risk to environmental and animal health due to release of the hazardous toxic component. Therefore, nanoparticles synthesis using fungal extract could be an ecofriendly alternative to chemical-based methods as green synthesis has the lesser possibility of such component release. The fungal extract comprises a plethora of secreted extracellular proteins, enzymes, vitamins and ions which are responsible for the reduction and stability of nano-size metallic particles. The biogenic nanoparticles thus produced have attained much interest due to their composition, shape and size, photochemical, optical and chemical properties. The nanomaterials have applications in various fields such as biosensor technology, DNA based techniques, metabolomics, antimicrobial agents, cancer cell treatment, protein engineering, purification of water and degradation of pesticides, synthetic biology, downstream processing and delivery of therapeutic compounds. 

Keywords: Biogenic synthesis, FTIR, Fungal Extract, Fungi, Metal nanoparticles, TEM, XRD.