Abstract: (20642 Views)
Gold nanoparticles have received considerable attention in recent years because of their promising applications in diagnostic imaging, biosensors, biolabels, and drug and gene delivery systems. The chemical methods of nanoparticle synthesis are the most widely and traditionally used methods. Production of nanoparticles by chemical methods causes contamination from precursor chemicals due to the use of toxic solvents and generation of hazardous by-products. On the other hand, the physical methods have low yield and high cost. Hence, there is an increasing need to develop low cost, non-toxic, biocompatible and environmentally benign processes for synthesis of metallic nanoparticles where the biological approaches for synthesis of nanoparticles gain importance. In this study, we investigated the biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles using Streptomyces sp. ERI-3. Streptomycessp.ERI-3 was isolated from the soil of Ahar Copper Mine (Ahar, Iran) and its biomass was incubated at 28ºC on a rotary shaker (200 rpm) for 48 h. The nanoparticles were characterized by means of UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).The nanoparticles exhibited maximum absorbance at 540 nm (special wavelength of gold nanoparticles) in UV-vis spectroscopy. The XRD spectrum of gold nanoparticles exhibited 2Ө values corresponding to the gold nanocrystals. The TEM micrographs revealed the extracellular and attached to cell surface formation of gold nanoparticles in the size range of 50-100 nm with spherical morphology.
Article Type:
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Subject:
Biophysics|Biotechnology|Range Science Received: 2011/06/29 | Accepted: 2011/07/29 | Published: 2012/10/22