Abstract
Environment-friendly and cost effective methods to obtain metal nanoparticles represent a major issue in modern material science. In particular, synthetic routes relying on green chemistry appear to be promising for large scale production. In this work, we prepared and characterized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) from extracts of Cucurbita pepo L. leaves, which constitute an agricultural byproduct of large diffusion and abundant biomass. The investigation was carried out at different plant ages, from 1 to 4 months, and the production of nanoparticles (in term of size, shape and yield) was correlated with the concentration of chlorophylls and carotenoids in the extracts. The synthesis was carried out by using purely aqueous extracts at relatively low temperature (70 ℃) and diluted solutions of HAuCl4 (from 5 × 10−5M to 10−3M in the final samples) to provide for the gold precursor. TEM microscopy evidenced that lower Au(III) concentration promotes the formation of anisotropic particles and platelets, while higher concentrations favor a huge production of more monodisperse AuNPs with size in the range of 10–15 nm. In addition, the age of plants was showed to play a role in controlling the shape and size of the AuNPs. Our results open new perspectives for the control of shape and size of nanoparticles obtained by green methods in view of their applications in technological fields, which may range from nanocatalysis to biomedicine.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Collins, T.J.: Green Chemistry. Macmillan Encyclopedia of Chemistry. Simon and Schuster Macmillan, New York (1997)
Akthar, M.S., Panwar, J., Yun, Y.S.: Biogenic synthesis of metallic nanoparticles by plant extracts. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 1, 591–602 (2013)
Duan, H., Wang, D., Yadong, L.: Green chemistry for nanoparticle synthesis. Chem. Soc. Rev. 44, 5778–57792 (2015)
Mittal, A.K., Chisti, Y., Banerjee, U.C.: Synthesis of metallic nanoparticles using plant extracts. Biotechnol. Adv. 31, 346–356 (2013)
Iravani, S.: Green synthesis of metal nanoparticles using plants. Green Chem. 13, 2638–2650 (2011)
Baruwati, B., Varma, R.S.: High value products from waste: grape pomace extract—A three-in-one package for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles. Chem. Sus. Chem. 2, 1041–1044 (2009)
Ghule, K., Ghule, A.V., Liu, J.Y., Ling, Y.C.: Microscale size triangular gold prisms synthesized using bengal gram beans (Cicer arietinum L.) extract and HAuCl4·3H2O: a green biogenic approach. J. Nanosci Nanotechnol. 6, 3746–3751 (2006)
Gonnelli, C., Cacioppo, F., Giordano, C., Capozzoli, L., Salvatici, M.C., Colzi, I., Del Bubba, M., Ancillotti, C., Ristori, S.: Cucurbita pepo L. extracts as a versatile hydrotropic source for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles with different shapes. Green Chem. Lett. Rev. 8, 39–47 (2015)
Turkevich, J., Stevenson, P.C., Hillier, J.: A study of the nucleation and growth processes in the synthesis of colloidal gold. Discuss. Faraday Soc. 11, 55–75 (1951)
Frens, G.: Controlled nucleation for the regulation of the particle size in monodisperse gold suspensions. Nature (London), Phys. Sci. 241, 20–22 (1973)
Wellburn, A.R.: The spectral determination of chlorophylls a and b, as well as total carotenoids, using various solvents with spectrophotometers of different resolution. J. Plant Physiol. 144, 307–313 (1994)
Ishikita, H., Loll, B., Biesiadka, J., Saenger, W., Knapp. E.W.: Redox potentials of chlorophylls in the photosystem ii reaction center. Biochemistry 44, 4118–4124 (2005)
Chandran, K., Song, S., Yun, S.I.: Effect of size and shape controlled biogenic synthesis of gold nanoparticles and their mode of interactions against food borne bacterial pathogens. Arab. J. Chem. (2014). doi:10.1016/j.arabjc.2014.11.041
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gonnelli, C., Giordano, C., Fontani, U., Salvatici, M.C., Ristori, S. (2018). Green Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles from Extracts of Cucurbita pepo L. Leaves: Insights on the Role of Plant Ageing. In: Piotto, S., Rossi, F., Concilio, S., Reverchon, E., Cattaneo, G. (eds) Advances in Bionanomaterials. Lecture Notes in Bioengineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62027-5_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62027-5_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62026-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62027-5
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)