CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Nanotechnology is a new and fast emerging field that involves the design, production and use of structures
at the nano-scale i.e. 1 to 100 nanometres (nm). Nanoparticles are defined as particles with all three
external dimensions in the nanoscale, while nano-objects are discrete pieces of material with one or more
external dimensions in the nanoscale, such as nanotubes. To put the size of nanoparticles into perspective,
a human hair is typically 80000 nm wide, a red blood cell has a diameter of 7-8000 nm, while virus
particles are similar in size to many nanoparticles, with maximum dimensions of 10 to 100 nm.

Due to their small size, nanoparticles exhibit novel properties that are often vastly different from their bulk
counterparts (larger sized particles with the same chemical composition), such as high tensile strength, low
weight, high electrical and thermal conductivity, and unique electronic properties, the discovery of which
has led to widespread interest in their potential commercial and industrial applications. Nanoparticles tend
to be more reactive than the corresponding conventional forms due to two main properties:

i) per unit mass, nanoparticles have a much higher surface area and thus a greater proportion of
constituent atoms exposed to the environment on the surface; and

ii) quantum effects appear to become more important at the nano-scale, particularly for nanoparticles at
sizes of less than 10 nm, resulting in constrained bonds which are more likely to be disrupted.

Many applications of nanotechnology involve the use of both nanoparticles and nano-objects. In fact,
numerous nanoparticles are already on the market, in products such as paints, sunscreens, cosmetics,
nanomedicines, self-cleaning glass, industrial lubricants, advanced tyres, semiconductors and food. This
proliferation of nanotechnology has prompted concerns over the safety of engineered nanoparticles where
exposure to humans and/or the environment occurs intentionally or accidentally.

1.2 Green Synthesis of nanoparticles

Physical and Chemical methods used now for production of nanoparticles though lead to monodisperse
nanoparticles, but they are less stable and various toxic chemicals are used. The use of toxic chemicals and
non-polar solvents in synthesis leads to the inability to use nanoparticles in clinical fields. Therefore,
development of clean, non-toxic, biocompatible and eco-friendly method for synthesis of nanoparticles
deserves recognition. Even though biological synthesis of nanoparticles is considered cost effective, safe,
environment-friendly and sustainable, it has various drawbacks. The culturing of microorganisms is
time-consuming and it is difficult to have fine control over shape, size and crystallinity. The particles are

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not monodisperse and the rate of production is slow. These are the various problems which have vexed the
biological synthesis of nanoparticles. But optimization of factors involved like pH, temperature, metal ion
concentration, and the strain of the microbe used has given hope for large scale application of biological
synthesis. Moreover genetically engineered strains which express the reducing agent maximally can be
used in the future which will provide better control over the shape and size of nanoparticles. Interaction
between microbes and metals has been known for long and is used in bioremediation, biomineralization,
bioleaching and biocorrosion but it its use in the synthesis of nanoparticles is a recent discovery and lot of
study is required before it can be put to practical use.

Even though nanoparticles can be developed using physicochemical techniques, they’re lacking of
environmentally benign causes a lot of problems. Especially, when their intended use is for the
development of medicines. Environment factors are not the only reason biological synthesis is preferred,
also because it can be used to produce large quantities of nanoparticles that are free of contamination and
have a well defined size and morphology. The use of plant metabolites to reduce meta ions has been
known for a long time, although the nature of reducing agents had been unknown for a long time.
Processes for making nanoparticles using plant extracts are readily scalable and may be less expensive
compared with the relatively expensive methods based on microbial processes or whole plants.

An important significance of plant extracts, in context of synthesizing nanoparticles, is that they both act a
reducing agents and capping agents . The nature of nanoparticle synthesized depends on the source of the
plant extract. This aspect can also be utilized in making nanoparticle of preference. This happens because
different sources of plants contain different concentration and combinations of organic reducing agents.

1.2.1 Use of Plant Extracts in Nano Particle Synthesis

During the process of production of metal nanoparticles, the plant extract is simply mixed with a solution
of metal salt at room temperature. It is a quick reaction and usually takes only minutes to complete.
Nanoparticles of Gols, Silver and various other metals have been synthesized in the same way. Various
plant extracts are used for synthesis of metal nanoparticles.

Nanoparticle properties and production time depends on various characteristics of Plant Extracts, namely:

1. Its concentration

2. Metal salt concentration

3. pH

4. Temperature

5. Contact time

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1.2.2 Advantages of using Plant extracts

1. The production of nanoparticles using the chemical methods has been raising concernamong the
environmentalists as they have an adverse affect on theie ecology, hence the use of plant extracts for the
formation of nano particles is being favoured due to its salubrious nature towards the environment. Even
in the industry, it produces much less toxic waste.

2. The plant supplement both the reducing as well as stabilizing (capping) agent for the nano particles
which otherwise have to be externally added in other methods.

3. The chemical method is being proven less economically beneficial as compared to the plant method as
the maintenance cost is much less and the waste disposal requires less effort among other factors.

4. This method is even better than using the microorganism method as the maintenance of whole plant
system is much less than a culture of bacteria which needs a myriad of phenomena to be properly taken
care of.

5. Recent studies have shown that the therapeutic effects of plants, from which the nanoparticles are being
derived, can also be imbued upon the particles hence providing with perfect vehicles to the therapeutic
materials to act upon the site of action as well as eliminating the need to artificially develop a drug for that
particular ailment.

1.3 Applications

1.3.1 Silver

Due to their antimicrobial property, silver nanoparticles have gained a varied range of applications
over the years in health care, food and textile industries and disinfection of medical instruments.
Silver sulfadiazine creams use sometimes to prevent infection at the burn site and its incorporation in
clothing protects from emitting body odour in addition to deodorizing sprays [3]. Silver nanoparticles
have proven to exert antiviral activity against HIV-1 at non-cyto-toxic concentrations, but the
mechanism underlying their HIV-inhibitory activity has been not fully elucidated [3]. AgNPs have
potentially antimicrobial effects against infectious organisms such as Escherichia coli [20].

Because of catalytic properties of Ag nanoparticles, which are different from its bulk properties, they
have found strong applications in reaction systems. For example, AgNPs was found to catalyze the
chemiluminescence from luminol–hydrogen peroxide system with catalytic activity better than Au
and Pt colloid [5]. The optical properties of a metallic nanoparticle depend mainly on its surface
plasmon resonance, where the plasmon refers to the collective oscillation of the free electrons within
the metallic nanoparticle. It is well known that the plasmon resonant peaks and line widths are

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sensitive to the size and shape of the nanoparticle, the metallic species and the surrounding medium.
For instance, nanoclusters composed of 2–8 silver atoms could be the basis for a new type of optical
data storage [11].

Additionally, in the case of drug delivery applications, the noble metal nanoparticles such as AgNPs
are powerful and promising tools due to existing functionalized surface. In other words, the unique
properties of AgNPs such as large surface to volume ratio, absorption in the visible range, surface
functionalization, and controlled drug release make them valuable in human life studies [22]. AgNPs
ensure safety of food and preserve food for longer periods by killing the microorganisms when they
are used in the packaging of them. In addition to human life related applications, the unique chemical
and physical properties of nanoparticles make them extremely suitable for other high-tech
applications such as designing new and improved sensing devices especially electrochemical sensors
and biosensors [20].

The triangular silver nanoparticles fabricated by nanosphere lithography indeed function as sensitive
and selective nanoscale affinity biosensors. These nanosensors retain all of the other desirable features
of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) spectroscopy which is the fundamental principle behind many
colour based biosensor applications and by changing nanoparticles size and shape, these nanosensors
possess at least two unique characteristics: (i) modest refractive sensitivity and (ii) a short-range,
sensing length scale determined by the characteristic decay length of the local electromagnetic field.
These two factors combine to yield an area of mass sensitivity of 100–1000 pg/mm2 , which is only a
factor of 100 poorer than the best propagating SPR sensitivities [16].

Recently, inkjet technology has been used to produce flexible electronic circuits at low cost, and many
studies regarding this application have been reported in recent years. To fabricate flexible electronic
displays via inkjet printing, it is necessary to develop suitable inks. Nano-sized metal particles such as
Au or Ag are useful for producing electronic circuits because of the uniformity of the small metal
particles dispersed in the inks and their high electrical conductivity [26].

1.3.2 Copper

Copper nanoparticles have possible applications in diverse areas such as electronics, cosmetics,
coatings, packaging and biotechnology. For example NP can be induced to merge into a solid at
relatively lower temperature often without melting, leading to improved and easy to create coatings
for electronic application eg. Capacitors. NP possess wavelength below the critical wavelength of
light, this renders them transparent, a property that makes them very useful for applications in
cosmetics, coatings and packaging.

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Copper nanoparticles are used to provide antimicrobial properties to coatings, plastics, textiles and
food packaging [19]. Metallic nanoparticles can be attached to single strands of DNA
nondestructively this opens up avenues for medical diagnostic applications. Nanoparticles can
traverse through the vasculature and localize any target organ. This potentially can lead to novel
therapeutic, imaging and biomedical applications there are a number of reports on anti tumor activity
of biologically synthesized copper nanoparticles.

A study tested the cytotoxicity activity of A. indica mediated CuNP by MTT assay against MCF-7
breast cancer cell lines and confirmed that copper oxide NP have cytotoxic activity [38]. The
apoptotic effect of copper nanoparticles is another useful property that finds various applications and
is mediated by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) involving the disruption of
mitochondrial membrane potential in A549 cells. The observed characteristics and results obtained in
in vitro assays suggest that the copper nanoparticles might be a potential anticancer agent. Cu
nanoparticles find use in a wide range of applications, including solar cells, solar controllers, solar
radiation absorbers, catalysts, high capacity cathode materials in lithium secondary batteries,
superconductors at low temperature, chemical sensor Nanoparticles have been recently acknowledged
as a novel class of materials having the capability to induce autophagy [6].