Process Variables in Phytosynthesis of Ag@AgCl Nanoparticles by Syzygium cumini Fruit Extract

In recent years, the development of efficient and well-characterized metal nanoparticles synthesis without use of toxic chemicals has become a major focus of researchers. One of the most considered methods is production of metal nanoparticles using organisms. Among organisms, plants seem to be the best candidates because of their advantages such as their availability, rapid single-step method, low-cost, eco-friendly without using high pressure, energy or toxic chemicals, safe for human therapeutic use and they are suitable for large-scale biosynthesis. Moreover, the nanoparticles are more various in shape and size in comparison with those produced by other organisms [1].At this work, we are reporting the one step phytosynthesis of silver/silver chloride nanoparticles (Ag@AgCl NPs) using aqueous fruit extract of Syzygium cumini as a reducing and stabilizing agent without addition of any other external compound. The fruit extract of Syzygium cumini is known to possess a variety of flavonoid and other phenolic compounds [2] that could probably mediated the reduction by donating electrons and can act as capping agent [3]. Effective parameters on synthesis of Ag@AgCl NPs such as; pH, the volume of extract, silver ion concentration, temperature and reaction time were optimized to attend control over the particle size and stability. Initially, synthesis of Ag@AgCl was confirmed through UV–Vis spectroscopy which shows the surface plasmonic resonance peak (SPR) at 408 nm and TEM reveals that synthesized Ag@AgCl NPs are spherical in shape with the average size of 16.8 nm. XRD analysis revealed that biosynthesized Ag@AgCl NPs are crystalline in nature. The present investigation may prove to be of great value in synthesizing biomolecule-loaded nanoparticle with well-controlled sizes for a broad spectrum of environmental, biological and industrial applications.