Biological Synthesis and Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles (AuNPs), using Plant Extracts

Biological Synthesis and Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles (AuNPs), using Plant Extracts

This work, conducted biological synthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) through environmentally friendly technology using plant extracts: cactus (Opuntia sp.), onion (Allum sp.), pear (Pyrus sp.), coffee (Coffea sp.) and laurel (Laurus sp.), as a reducing agent and stabilizers. The methodology consists in merging Turkevich et al., 1951 and Rico-Moctezuma et al., 2010 techniques. The characterization with UV-Visible spectrophotometry determined maximum absorbance at 527-537 nm, corresponding with previously reported AuNPs absorbance, while transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) confirmed that the gold nanoparticles biosynthesis produced different shapes, including spheres, cubes, cones, cylinders and others with a size of 5-100 nm depending on the extract used, so that the proposed method is useful, eco-friendly, quick and inexpensive to synthesize AuNPs. Furthermore these AuNPs can be functionalized.