Current World Environment

The tremendous interest of silver nanoparticles for the scientific community has cultivated due to its wide range of industrial applications including biomedicine. Silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) are also being applied as an anti-carcinogen. Enumerable modes are available on its various synthesizing strategies which causes an adverse effect on environment. But green synthesis method which is either plant mediated or microbe mediated, a precious gift to the environment dedicated by the researchers. Here an eco-friendly approach for the preparation of Ag NPs by using aqueous extract of Neem leaves is reported. The formations of silver nanoparticle were confirmed by optical absorption spectra showing a broad absorption peaks at ~420 nm. This peak arises due to the absorption of incident light by the free electrons in the surface of the nanoparticles when they excited by an appropriate electromagnetic excitation. Material identification and crystallinity were dealt with X-ray diffraction spectra. The particles are found to be highly crystalline with face-centred cubic structure. The size of the particle was estimated by transmission electron microscope and found in the nanometer (10-9 m) scale. The synthesized nanoparticles showed a strong photocatalytic activity through the degradation of methylene blue dye under sunlight illumination. After four hours of sunlight irradiation the dye degradation was found to be 88%. The biosynthesized silver nanoparticles can be used in waste water treatment in a cost-effective way.

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