Murraya Koenigii leaf-assisted rapid green synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles

A facile bottom-up 'green' and rapid synthetic route using Murraya Koenigii leaf extract as reducing and stabilizing agent produced silver nanoparticles at ambient conditions and gold nanoparticles at 373 K. The nanoparticles were characterized using UV-vis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Xray diffraction (XRD) and FTIR analysis. This method allows the synthesis of well-dispersed silver and gold nanoparticles having size similar to 10 nm and similar to 20 nm, respectively. Silver nanoparticles with size similar to 10 nm having symmetric SPR band centered at 411 nm is obtained within 5 min of addition of the extract to the olution of AgNO3 at room temperature. Nearly spherical gold nanoparticles having size similar to 20 nm with SPR at 532 nm is obtained on adding the leaf extract to the boiling solution of HAuCl4. Crystallinity of the nanoparticles is confirmed from the high-resolution TEM images, selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and XRD patterns. From the FTIR spectra it is found that the biomolecules responsible for capping are different in gold and silver nanoparticles. A comparison of the present work with the author's earlier reports on biosynthesis is also included. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.