biogenic synthesis of copper nanoparticles using aquatic pteridophyte marsilea quadrifolia linn. rhizome and its antibacterial activity

The spread of contagious diseases and the increase in the drug resistance amongst pathogens has enforcedthe researchers to synthesize biologically active nanoparticles. development of eco-friendly practice for thesynthesis of nanoparticles is growing bit by bit in the field of nano-biotechnology. the present investigationoutlines the development of a method to biosynthesize copper nanoparticles (cunps) by mixing copperchloride solution with aqueous rhizome extract of marsilea quadrifolia. the synthesized nanoparticles werecharacterized by using the uv-vis spectroscopy, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ftir), scanningelectron microscopy (sem), x-ray diffraction (xrd) and atomic force microscope (afm). the uv-visspectra showed an absorption band at 324 nm. the ftir measurement revealed the presence of all functionalgroups having control over reduction and stabilization of the nanoparticles. the sem micrograph depictsthe morphology of biogenically synthesized cunps with leaf like structure. the x- ray diffraction patternconfirmed the formation of crystalline nature of cunps with an average size of 25.20 nm. regular gravel likestructure of cunps was displayed in the afm image. additionally, the biosynthesized cunps were foundto be extremely toxic against two gram positive bacterial strains bacillus thuringiensis and streptococcusfaecalis.