Characterization and biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using a fungus Aspergillus niger

An attractive possibility of green nanotechnology is to use microorganisms in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Recently, the biosynthesis especially from fungi has emerged as a novel method for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are considered as building blocks of Nanotechnology. In the present work we have screened fungi for the extracellular production of silver nanoparticles. Aspergillus sps, Rhizopus sps, Fusarium sp. and Penicillium sp. were the isolates screened and subjected to silver nanoparticles production. Of the tested isolates, the fungus Aspergillus sp. showed maximum absorbance at 416 nm which is an indication of Silver nanoparticles production. Further characterization was made by TEM which revealed the shape to be spherical and size ranged between 20-55 nm, EDS showed the presence of elemental silver at 3kev, FTIR spectrum showed the different functional groups, XRD spectrum showed the crystalline nature of the particles and AFM revealed three dimensional structures of the nanoparticles. Of all kinds of nanoparticles silver nanoparticles show great promise in terms of biomedical applications as they exhibit different biomedical activities.