Greener approach for controllable synthesis of silver nanoparticles using novel biological leaf extract of Cordia myxa

Over the past decade there has been an increased interest on the topic of green synthesis of nanoparticles over the chemical and physical syntheses, which includes benign reaction media and non-hazardous solvents [1]. Among different green synthesis, the use of plants for synthesize of nanoparticles gaining advantages such as their availability, rapid single-step method, low-cost, eco-friendly, without using high pressure, energy or toxic chemicals, and safe for human therapeutic use. [2]At this work, we are reporting for the first time one step biogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) at room temperature using aqueous leaf extract of Cordia myxa (C. myxa) as a reducing and stabilizing agent without addition of any other external compound. The adopted methodology was totally hazard free, clean, nontoxic and environment friendly.It has been reported that leaf extract of C. myxa has content of flavonoids and phenolic derivative [3] that could probably aid in the synthesis of AgNPs [4]. We focus especially on the influencing factors of AgNPs formation. The effects of various factors like pH, temperature, concentration of metal ions, volume of extract and reaction time on the AgNPs synthesis are evaluated. The obtained colloids have been characterized by UV–Vis spectroscopy, TEM, XRD, and FT-IR. Initially, synthesis of AgNPs was confirmed through UV–Vis spectroscopy which shows the surface plasmonic resonance peak (SPR) at 410 nm and TEM reveals that synthesized AgNPs are spherical in shape with the size range between 5 and 10 nm. This data shows that the synthesized nanoparticles have a small size with narrow size distribution. FTIR analysis provides clear evidence that constituent present in the leaf extract act as reducing and stabilizing bio agents. The XRD spectrum clearly shows that the AgNPs are crystalline in nature. This work may prove to be of great value in synthesizing nanoparticles with well-controlled sizes in chemical, pharmaceutical, and materials production processes.