Fungus-mediated synthesis of gold nanoparticles: a novel biological approach to nanoparticle synthesis.

The biological effects of nanoparticles and their uses as molecular probes are research areas of growing interest. The present study demonstrates an eco-friendly biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles. The pure colonies of penicillium aurantiogriseum, penicillium citrinum, and penicillium waksmanii were cultured in fluid czapek dox broth. Then, their supernatants were examined for the ability to produce gold nanoparticles. In this step, 1 mM solution of AuCl added to the reaction matrixes separately. The reactions were performed in a dark environment at 28 degrees C. After 24 hours, it was observed that the color of the solutions turned to dark purple from light yellow. Synthesized gold nanoparticles were characterized by using UV-Visible Spectroscopy, Nano Zeta Sizer, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that the gold nanoparticles were formed fairly uniform with spherical shape with the Z-average diameter of 153.3 nm, 172 nm and 160.1 nm for penicillium aurantiogriseum, penicillium citrinum, and penicillium waksmanii, respectively. The Fourier transformed infrared spectra revealed the presence of different functional groups to gold nanoparticles which were present in the fungal extract. The current approach suggests that the rapid synthesis of nanoparticles would be proper for developing a biological process for mass scale production.