Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Green synthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles using the marine seaweed Ulva lactuca

7^th World Nano Conference

June 20-21, 2016 Cape Town, South Africa

Ofhani Christopher Mukhoro, Denzil Beukes and Edith Antunes

University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nanomed Nanotechnol

Abstract:

The synthesis of metal nanoparticles using marine algae has largely been unexplored, but it is regarded as a more greatly biocompatible method than other methods. The synthesis of gold nanoparticles using the green seaweed Ulva lactuca algae aqueous extract shows a rapid and non-toxic process which resulted in nanoparticles which have the greatest potential for biomedical applications owing to their water solubility. In this investigation, we studied the green synthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles using the live Ulva lactuca marine organism. The formation of gold nanoparticles was preliminary observed with the change of colour from a yellow to dark pink colour characteristic of gold nanoparticles which was confirmed by the observation of the surface plasmon resonance band at 530 nm using UVâ??visible spectroscopy. The synthesized nanoparticles were further characterized using transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The simple process for the biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles is rapid, cost-effective and eco-friendly and the study further eliminates the use of additional chemicals as reducing and stabilizing agent. Nanoparticles synthesized through such environmentally benign routes can be used for synthesizing many other metal nanoparticles as well as for a wide range of biomedical applications, for commercial production on a large scale and also can be used as efficient catalysts for different organic reactions.

Biography :

Christopher has completed his honours degree in microbiology at the age of 2 years from university of Venda and now is doing his 2nd year MSc in nanoscience at University of the Western Cape. He has co-authoured in an article titled “ Identification and characterization of a heat-inducible Hsp70 gene from Sorghum bicolor which confers tolerance to thermal stress”.

Email: 3569960@myuwc.ac.za