Light Mediated Generation of Silver Nanoparticles by Spinach Thylakoids/Chloroplasts

PLoS One. 2016 Dec 9;11(12):e0167937. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167937. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The unique potential of chloroplasts/thylakoids to harness light energy to transport electrons from H2O to various entities was exploited for reduction of Ag+ to generate nanoparticles (NPs). Spinach thylakoids/chloroplasts turned AgNO3 solutions brown in light, but not in dark. Besides showing Ag-NPs specific surface plasmon resonance band, these brown solutions showed presence of 5-30 nm crystalline NPs composed of Ag. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis revealed that Ag-NPs were biphasic composed of face-centered cubic Ag0 and cubic Ag2O. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data further corroborated the presence of Ag2O in Ag-NPs. Limited formation of Ag-NPs in dark and increased generation of Ag0/Ag2O-NPs with increase in light intensity (photon flux density) by thylakoids/chloroplasts, established the role of light-harvesting photosynthetic machinery in generation of Ag0/Ag2O-NPs. Potential of thylakoids/chloroplasts to generate Ag-NPs from Ag+ on exposure to red and blue wavelength regions of visible light of electromagnetic spectrum, further confirmed the involvement of photosynthetic electron transport in reduction of Ag+ and generation of Ag-NPs. While light energy mediated photosynthetic electron transport donates energized electrons extracted from H2O to Ag+ to form Ag0-NPs, O2 released as a by-product during photolysis of H2O oxidizes Ag0 to form Ag2O-NPs. Our findings furnish a novel, simple, economic and green method that can be exploited for commercial production of Ag0/Ag2O-NPs.

MeSH terms

  • Chloroplasts / metabolism*
  • Light*
  • Metal Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Photoelectron Spectroscopy
  • Silver / chemistry*
  • Spinacia oleracea / metabolism*
  • Thylakoids / metabolism*

Substances

  • Silver

Grants and funding

Support was provided by: the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology (Award Number: BT/Bio-CARe/02/604/2011-12, Recipient: P. Sharmila); University of Delhi (IN) (Award Number: RC/2015/9677, Recipient: P. Pardha-Saradhi, Ph.D.); Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (Award Number: 2015001790002, Recipient: Hyunook Kim); and University Grants Commission (Award Number: 3625(NET-DEC.2012), Recipient: Nisha Shabnam). The funding received during this specific study had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of this manuscript.