Biological synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles using biosurfactant producing bacillus tequilensis

In order to survive in environment containing high levels of metals, organisms adapt evolving mechanisms to cope up with them. These mechanisms may alter the chemical nature of the toxic metal so that it no longer causes toxicity, resulting in the formation of nanoparticles of the metal concerned. Thus nanoparticle formation is the “by-product” of a resistance mechanism against a specific metal, and this can be used as an alternative way of producing them. Nanoparticles have unique thermal, optical, physical, chemical, magnetic and electrical properties compared to their bulk material counterparts. The most important feature of nanoparticles is their surface area to volume aspect ratio, allowing them to interact with other particles easier. In the present study silver nanoparticles are formed in the water-in-oil emulsion phase. Synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using UV-visible spectrophotometer, SEM-EDX, FT-IR and X-ray diffraction methods. The morphology of the nanoparticles is crystalline, more or less spherical and the particle size is 32nm. XRD analysis has given a clear picture indicating the presence crystalline cubic phase of monoclinic silver nanoparticles.