Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using hibiscus leaf extract and its characterization

In the present work, a fast, convenient and environment-friendly method has been used for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles by reducing silver nitrate solution with Hibiscus leaf extracts. Silver nanoparticles began to form just after reaction and reduction reaction was completed within 2.5 hours. Here, the effect of water bath temperature, the effect of heating time at that temperature and the effect of silver nitrate solution concentration on the size of the nanoparticles have been also studied. The particle size and morphology of the synthesized silver nanoparticles were identified through Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis and were found 30 to 40 nm in size and spherical in shape. It was also found that the size of nanoparticles increased with increasing water bath temperature, heating time and silver nitrate solution concentration. Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was used to confirm the existence of metallic silver in the nanoparticle suspension and to find its elemental percentage that was around 43%.