Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Plant Extracts for Photocatalytic and Antibacterial Activity

Abstract

Human health and environmental safety are threatened on a worldwide scale by effluent pollution generated from chemical industries that contaminate water sources with heavy metals, inorganic pollutants, and organic pollutants. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) outperform other metal nanoparticles (MNPs) in several ways, including their high surface-to-volume ratio, shape and size diversity, and inexpensive cost. As a result, they are valuable in a wide range of applications and research domains. MNPs can typically be prepared through chemical and physical processes. However, these approaches involve the generation of toxic by-products in the synthesis protocol. The green synthesis method that uses plant products is considered to be important and better than other methods because it is a one-pot synthesis, affordable, and avoids the need for chemical reducing and stabilizing agents. This chapter describes in detail the plant-mediated synthesis of AgNPs, their photocatalytic and antibacterial applications, and the in vitro characterization techniques used for evaluating the nanoparticles.