Green Synthesis and Characterization of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Using Phyllanthus Niruri Extract

Studies on green synthesis of nanoparticles moves forward a lot on these days. The present work involves the green method of synthesizing iron oxide nanoparticle from Phyllanthus niruri leaf extract. Furthermore, the green synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles were characterized and its antimicrobial activity was investigated. A characteristic comparison with chemical method of synthesis is also done, for iron nanoparticles. The characterization of nanoparticle includes the IR, UV-Vis, surface morphology and size determination using TEM, SEM, and XRD. The analytical studies revealed that the synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles from these two different methods have almost identical size and morphology. The synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles showed significant antimicrobial activity against the microbes, E. coli and P. aeroginosa. The studies concluded that the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles using plant extracts is more beneficial as it is an economical, energy efficient, low cost and environment-friendly process than the bio hazardous chemical synthesis. The present investigation may be a definite contribution to green chemistry in general and nano synthesis in particular.