A novel green chemical route for synthesis of silver nanoparticles using camellia sinensis.

The thrust to develop environmental friendly procedures for production of Nanoparticles arises from the very fact that current nanotechnology research uses a lot of chemicals, which are potential threat to both environment and public health. Tea (Camellia Sinensis) with its rich source of polyphenolic compounds has been exploited for the reduction and capping of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), making it a complete green chemical route. The reduction of Ag+ to Ag0 was observed by the color change from pale yellow to dark yellow. The reaction was followed with the help of UV-Visible spectrometer. Crystal structure was obtained by carrying out X-ray diffraction studies and it showed face centered cubic (fcc) structure. The particle size and morphology were obtained from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) studies. An average particle size of 25 nm silver particles could be obtained using this method and the TEM and SAXS data corroborate with each other.