Cyanobacteria as biochemical energy source for the synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles, mechanism and potential applications: a review

Abstract

Green synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) has gained great concern among researchers due to their unique properties, excellent applications and efficient route of synthesis. From the last decades, the number biologicals such as plants, fungus, bacteria, yeast, algae, and cyanobacteria and their products are using by various researchers for the synthesis of different NPs. However, the pillar of green chemistry keeps touching new heights to improve the performance. This review paper unveils almost recent cyanobacteria-assisted greener NP synthesis technique, characterization and application. The enormous potency of cyanobacteria in NP synthesis (silver, gold, copper, zinc, palladium, titanium, cadmium sulfide, and selenium) and significance of reducing enzymes were summarized. The extracellular and intracellular entity such as metabolites, enzyme, protein, pigments in cyanobacteria play a significant role in the conversion of metal ions to metal NPs with unique properties discussed briefly. The green synthesis of nanomaterials is valuable because of their cost-effective, nontoxic and eco-friendly prospects as well as the potential application metal NPs such as antibacterial, antifungal, anticancerous, catalytic, drug delivery, bioimaging, nanopesticide, nanofertilizer, sensing properties, etc. Therefore, in the present review, we have systematically discussed the mechanisms of synthesis and applications of cyanobacteria-assisted green synthesis of NPs.

Keywords: Application of NPs; Cyanobacteria; Extracellular NPs; Green synthesis; Intracellular NPs.

Fig. 1

Cyanobacteria-assisted a extracellular synthesis of NPs with the help of enzyme in aqueous medium where it react with respected salt, b mechanism of NPs (gold and silver) synthesis in presence of nitrate reductase

Fig. 2

Cyanobacteria-assisted a intracellular synthesis of NPs after uptake of respected salt precursor, b mechanism of NPs (gold and silver) synthesis within a cyanobacterial cell

Fig. 3

Multiple application of cyanobacteria-assisted synthesized NPs

Fig. 4

Mode of action of bacterial killing against bacteria with given ways (1) leakage of cytoplasmic content, (2) alteration of membrane permeability, (3) alteration in membrane structure, (4) DNA damage and oxidation of nucleotide bases, (5) destabilization of ribosomes, (6) oxidation of proteins, (7) reduction in the ATP production

Fig. 5

Mode of action of NPs against cancerous cells; (1) interruption of transcription and destabilization of proteins, (2) NPs interact with respiratory enzymes, (3) NPs interact with DNA and their functioning damage (4) increase in mitochondrial permeability