Biosynthesis and Characterization of Pd and Pt Nanoparticles Using Piper betle L. Plant in a Photoreduction Method

An extremely rapid green approach that generates bulk quantities of nanocrystals of noble metals such as palladium (Pd) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) with a small sizes of 3.8 +/- A 0.2 and 2.1 +/- A 0.4 nm by using Piper betle L. (Piperaceae) leaf extract is described. The highly stable and monodispersed Pd and Pt NPs were obtained at 10 min of continuous sunlight exposure. The bio-reduced Pd and Pt NPs were further characterized by using UV-Visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and cyclic voltammetry measurements. The particles, although discrete, were predominately associated with the P. betle plant proteins, which makes them stable over long time periods. These synthesized biogenic Pd and Pt NPs were evaluated for their acute toxicity studies against aquatic organism, Daphnia magna.