Recent progress in the green fabrication of cadmium sulfide and cadmium oxide nanoparticles: synthesis, antimicrobial and cytotoxic studies

Interestingly, cadmium sulfide (CdS) and cadmium oxide (CdO) nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used as bio-sensors, bio-imaging, molecular pathology, solar cells, liquid crystal displays, photovoltaic cells, IR detectors and in drug delivery applications. Salts of Cd can undergo bioreduction by various natural compounds found in microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, algae and also in plants, to form NPs. This biological synthesis using enzyme resources has gained tremendous importance due to its environmental friendliness; however, chemical and physical synthesis techniques are frequently employed due to reproducible results in NP formation. This review provides an overview of various reports on synthesizing CdS and CdO nanoparticles and their antimi-crobial and cytotoxic activities using bioreduction originating from different sources, e.g., bacteria, fungi, plants (leaves, fruit, flowers and roots), and microalgae. Furthermore, this review comprehensively discusses the sig-nificance of green nanotechnology in producing these NPs for various biomedical applications.

Automated summary

This review provides an overview of studies on the synthesis of CdS and CdO nanoparticles using bioreduction methods, and discusses their applications in antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities. The significance of green nanotechnology in biomedical applications is comprehensively discussed.