Synthesis of nanoparticles by microorganisms and their application in enhancing microbiological reaction rates

Nanotechnology has attracted a great interest in recent years due to its expected impact on many areas such as energy, medicine, electronics, and space industries. This review provides the state-of-art knowledge on the synthesis of nanoparticles by microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, and yeast, and their effect on microbiological processes. The available microbes and their predicted nanoparticle biosynthesis mechanism, the conditions to control the size/shape and monodispersity of particles, and microbiological reaction rate enhancement using nanoparticles as catalysts are presented. The current limitations and future scope for specific research are also discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.