BIOSYNTHESIS OF GOLD NANOPARTICLES, SCOPE AND APPLICATION: A REVIEW

The synthesis of gold nanoparticles has received considerable attention and has been a focus of research due to their high chemical and thermal stability, fascinating optical, electronic properties, and promising applications such as nanoelectronics, biomedicine, sensing, and catalysis. Different physical and chemical methods for gold nanoparticles synthesis are known but these methods are either expensive or are not eco-friendly due to use of hazardous chemicals, stringent protocol used during the process. These drawbacks necessitate the development of nonhazardous and greener methods for gold nanoparticles synthesis. Therefore, there has been tremendous excitement in the study of gold nanoparticles synthesis by using natural biological system. Microorganisms thus play a very important role in the eco-friendly and green synthesis of metal nanoparticles. The inherent, clean, nontoxic and environment friendly ability of eukaryotic and prokaryotic microorganisms, plants system to form the metal nanoparticles is particularly important in the development of nanobiotechnology. This review contains a brief outlook of the biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles using various biological resources, characterization and their potential application in various fields.