Introduction
The world today is evolving to smarter materials and the concept of nanotechnology has been of high relevance.
Nanoparticles are described as particles, clusters or materials in the range of 1- 100 nm. These materials have found enormous use and importance at this size range. Particles in the range of 20-100 nm have been found to possess unique properties from the material in which they are made from. Some of these have been used in Solar energy, medicine, antibacterial, as well as in electrochemistry [1].
There are 3 major ways of synthesizing nanomaterials/nanoparticles
- Chemical
- Physical and
- Biological: Plants, microorganism
Chemical methods involve the use of chemicals in the synthesis of nanomaterials
Physical methods involve the use of physical means e.g. milling, laser ablation
Biological methods are safe and are environmentally benign. Also, plants are more easy to use in the synthesis of nanoparticles since they do not need to be under cell culture maintenance.
How to produce Nanoparticles using plants
Today I will focus on the use of Thevetia peruviana which is an ornamental plant in many homes, as a source of synthesizing nanoparticles.
Thevetia peruviana
Thevetia peruviana is an ornamental dicotyledonous shrub. It is also referred to as bush milk or yellow oleander. This plant is native to Central and South America. They are also found in tropical countries. They are used as ornamental plants at different places such as parks, gardens, schools and churches [2].
It is worth to say that the seed has been reported to contain toxic compounds.
- Flowers contain some polyphenols.
- Leaves contain polyphenols, as well as protein.
One of the nanoparticles that is easy to produce is Silver nanoparticles.
The procedure as reported by Rupiasih et al., and Oluwaniyi et al., starts with the collection of the plant.
The parts of the plant are carefully collected and washed, then further processing is performed.
Rupiasih et al., used the milky white latex from the fruit of T. peruviana to produce silver nanoparticles. This was achieved by the addition of silver nitrate to the milk extract of T. peruviana and the mixture is then allowed to stay for a specified time frame.
During this time, it is expected that the reaction necessary for the production of silver nanoparticles would have occurred.
Oluwaniyi et al., synthesized silver nitrate using the extract from the leaf of Thevetia peruviana. The authors were able to obtain silver nanoparticles after 4 hours of mixing the leaf extract and silver nitrate solution [3].
The nanoparticles were then determined using electron microscopic instruments
The results showed that the presence of some functional groups in the extract of the plant were responsible for the conversion of the Ag+ to Ag0. This was confirmed using Fourier Transform Infrared.
[3]
The circled part in the spectrum shows the characteristics functional groups responsible for the production of silver nanoparticles
Electron micrographs showed that the nanoparticles are of the sizes range 10 -20 nm and 20 -30 nm
[1]
Oluwaniyi et al optimized the time, temperature and volume to determine the optimum conditions for the synthesis of nanoparticles using the T. peruviana leaves.
The authors proposed that the possible bioreduction mechanism is
[3]
The size of the synthesized nanoparticles ranged from 10 to 30 nm .
[3]
Application
The ability of the silver nanoparticles to act against microorganisms was also studied [3].
It was shown that the nanoparticles had activity against resistant multidrug microorganisms
Aspergillus niger
The clear zone observed shows the inhibitory property of the synthesized silver nanoparticles.
N.B. There are many other technical details that I have exempted in this post.
Conclusion
Basically, with the knowledge of the plants that you will like to work with, it is possible to synthesize nanoparticles under the appropriate conditions.
References
[1]. Rupiasih, Ni Nyoman, Avinash Aher, Suresh Gosavi, and P. B. Vidyasagar. "Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using latex extract of Thevetia peruviana: a novel approach towards poisonous plant utilization." In Recent Trends in Physics of Material Science and Technology, pp. 1-10. Springer Singapore, 2015.
[2]. Ibiyemi, S. A., V. O. Fadipe, O. O. Akinremi, and S. S. Bako. "Variation in oil composition of Thevetia peruviana Juss' yellow oleander'fruit seeds." Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management 6, no. 2 (2002): 61-65
[3]. Oluwaniyi, Omolara O., Haleemat I. Adegoke, Elijah T. Adesuji, Aderemi B. Alabi, Sunday O. Bodede, Ayomide H. Labulo, and Charles O. Oseghale. "Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using aqueous leaf extract of Thevetia peruviana Juss and its antimicrobial activities." Applied Nanoscience 6, no. 6 (2016): 903-912
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Wow ... I just understood that nanoparticles can be synthesized from the tree that grows in my house.
Lol. Yes. It can, peradventure if it has necessary phytochemicals.
Turpsy you are so smart. What are you studying?
Thanks @leggy23. Materials science.
Humm, interesting!
I want to see you get into the lab, and make a wave please.
You know i find chemistry kinda crazy😰
A job well done here.
Hahaha. Well, it is great to do some experiments in the lab.
Good write up. i perfect introduction
I enjoyed reading this turps
This just made me smile today. ☺ After having to vote down a guy that was spamming his link on my post as a comment, You have restored my faith in steem. With bot your post, and the great conclusion, as well as the banner :)
t.
Thanks.People do spam. Its something the communities will get ride of sooner. Thanks for reading.
Aha, you are a chemists. I remember when I use to find chemistry courses in school boring. Interesting to know plants can be used to produce Nanoparticles.
Hahah. Thanks @neebootoo. It can.
Very Interesing for me your blog bro ,thanks for sharing with us @turpsy
Many of my phd mates are actually working on plant based nanosynthesis... Nice post
Thats great. It a great field of research. Best wishes.
This is a well explanatory, synthetic and detailed wooow post, great write up that could serve as thesis material and also help in further research.
Lol. Yes, it is well research topic. Thanks @oladayoamusan.
You are really a good writer, you did justice to the above subject. One of the members of steemit, @arctictfoe is a good student as well in this area. I have followed you, please be kind enough to follow back. Together, we shall succeed in making steemit one of the best in world. Keep it up and steem on.
Thank you @jphilipsagholor. Keep steeming.
I'm truly amazed by this nanoparticles
Thanks for this article it has even made me more curious about it. Happy Sunday bro
Thank you for reading. Its great you are more curious about it. You will learn more as you work on the curiousity.
Nice piece,very good and extensive research on nanoparticles
Thanks @alexokolosi