Efficient and fast degradation of 4-nitrophenol and detection of Fe(III) ions by Poria cocos extract stabilized silver nanoparticles.

In this study, a simple and environment-friendly method has been successfully applied for the production of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using Poria cocos extract. The reaction time of 60 min, the temperature of 90 °C, and silver ion concentration of 2.0 mM were identified as the best condition for the PC-AgNPs fabrication. The XRD analysis confirmed a highly crystalline face-centered cubic structure of the biosynthesized material. The PC-AgNPs were presented separately in a spherical shape with an average crystal size of 20 nm, as endorsed by the TEM and FE-SEM measurements. The presence and crucial role of biomolecules in stabilizing the nanoparticles were elucidated by FTIR, EDX, and DLS techniques. The prepared biogenic nanoparticles were further applied for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and colorimetric detection of Fe3+ ions. The study results proved that PC-AgNPs exhibited superior catalytic activity and reusability in the conversion of 4-NP by NaBH4. The complete reduction of 4-NP could be achieved in 10 min with the pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.466 min-1, and no significant performance loss was found when the material was reused five times. The colorimetric probe based on PC-AgNPs displayed outstanding sensitivity and selectivity towards Fe3+ ions with a detection limit of 1.5 µM in a linear range of 0-250 µM. Additionally, the applicability of the developed assay was explored for testing Fe3+ ions in tap water. PC-AgNPs have a great potential for further applications as a promising catalyst for reducing nitrophenols and biosensors for the routine monitoring of Fe3+ in water.

Effective reduction of nitrophenols and colorimetric detection of Pb(ii) ions by Siraitia grosvenorii fruit extract capped gold nanoparticles.

This study presents a simple and green approach for the synthesis of Siraitia grosvenorii fruit extract capped gold nanoparticles (SG-AuNPs). The SG-AuNPs samples prepared under the optimized conditions were characterized by various techniques (UV-Vis, XRD, FTIR, HR-TEM, EDX, DLS). The biosynthesized nanoparticles were then studied for the reduction of 2-nitrophenol (2-NP) and 3-nitrophenols (3-NP) and for colorimetric detection of Pb2+ ions. The characterization results revealed that the crystals of SG-AuNPs were spherical with an average size of 7.5 nm. The FTIR and DLS analyses proved the presence of the biomolecule layer around AuNPs, which played an important role in stabilizing the nanoparticles. The SG-AuNPs showed excellent catalytic activity in the reduction of 3-NP and 2-NP, achieving complete conversion within 14 min. The catalytic process was endothermic and followed pseudo-first-order kinetics. The activation energy was determined to be 10.64 and 26.53 kJ mol-1 for 2-NP and 3-NP, respectively. SG-AuNPs maintained high catalytic performance after five recycles. The fabricated material was also found to be highly sensitive and selective to Pb2+ ions with the detection limit of 0.018 µM in a linear range of 0-1000 µM. The practicality of the material was validated through the analyses of Pb2+ in mimic pond water samples. The developed nanoparticles could find tremendous applications in environmental monitoring.