Biosensors Nanotechnology

Chapter 8

Biosynthesis of Metal Nanoparticles and Their Applications

Meryam Sardar^*, Abhijeet Mishra and Razi Ahmad

Department of Biosciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

*Corresponding author: [e-mail]; [e-mail]

Abstract

Nanotechnology can be defined as research for the designing, synthesis and manipulation of the structure of particles with a dimension smaller than 100 nm. The nanoparticles are of great scientific interest as they bridge the gap between bulk materials and atomic or molecular structures. Metallic nanoparticles have possible applications in diverse areas such as electronics, cosmetics, coatings, packaging, medicine and biotechnology. Although, chemical and physical methods may successfully produce pure and well-defined nanoparticles, these are quite expensive and potentially dangerous to the environment. The use of biological materials can be an alternative to chemical and physical methods for the production of nanoparticles in an eco-friendly manner. A promising approach to achieve this objective is to exploit the array of biological resources in nature. Over the past several years, plants, algae, fungi, bacteria, viruses and enzymes have been used for the production of low-cost, energy-efficient and nontoxic metallic nanoparticles. The integration of biological molecules and materials at the nanoscale has the potential to revolutionize many fields of science and technology. The nanometer size scale is particularly relevant in biology, ...