Nanoparticles, Their Synthesis, Effects and Their Applications in Nanotechnology

Abstract

Nanoparticles are defined as the particles at the scale measuring from 1-100 nanometers. Nanotechnology is embedded in the operation of all miniscule particles measuring in factor of 10-9. These materials have a significant role in medicine, pharmacy, biotechnology, environment and other fields. Nanoparticles are used as agents in drug and gene delivery for the treatment of certain tumor and cancer treatment. However, nanoparticles are environmentally toxic and pose challenges to the society with respect to their removal. This review would present a well refined knowledge of the nanoparticles, types, synthesis by chemical and biological methods, with their applications. Along with them the review presents about the nanotechnology, the fields it’s being utilized and techniques involved, and the recent updates in this evolving branch of science.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Understanding and maneuvering the particles at nano scale has its own applications, like in the field of medicine (Salata, 2004), industries (Stark et.al, 2014), agriculture, etc; There are many types of nanoparticles for example; gold, silver, copper, fluorescent nanoparticles like cadmium containing quantum dots, fluorescent carbon nanoparticles (FCNPs) (Sanni et.al, 2021) etc. Knowledge of the various kinds of nanoparticles, their synthesis, also their applications will lead to appropriate use of them in various fields. The techniques employed for the preparation are physical methods like laser ablation, evaporation-condensation etc.(Iravani et.al, 2013), chemical methods like chemical reduction,  solvothermal method, polyol process etc.,and biological methods makes use of  living biological systems to synthesize nanoparticles. This is called biogenic synthesis and is done from various bacteria, fungi, algae, yeasts, actinomycetes, viruses and plants (Sastri et.al, 2003).

The advancement in this field has brought various beneficial and harmful effects on the environment (Soares et.al, 2021), micro-organisms (Theivasanthi et.al, 2011) and to human beings. Like the star clusters that build up the galaxies these nanoparticles build up the nanotechnology where it is used as a prominent tool for diagnostics, in agriculture, in industries etc;Nanotechnology ideas and concepts were first introduced by American physicist Richard Feyman. The invention of scanning tunneling microscope in 1981 led to the unfolding of the manipulation and control over the individual atoms.The tools and techniques involved and the recent updates in this field, through this review can prove helpful in having a better understanding of nanoparticles and nanotechnology, and its wide application.

 II. TYPES OF NANOPARTICLES

1. Silver: Silver is known to be highly reflective and easy to work with, this nanoparticle can be synthesized biologically by bacteria, plants, fungi and algae e.g. Spirulinaplatensis, Azadirachtaindica etc; (Iravani et.al, 2013) or even by chemical and physical methods. Due to its versatile applications in numerous fields like medicine, textile industries (Hasan, 2015) and environmental applications (Vithiya et.al, 2011) etc; their synthesis is considered to be on top in the list.
2. Gold: Gold, like silver, can be synthesized by biological, chemical, and physical methods (Rafiyabano et.al, 2022). It is proven that gold nanoparticles can increase shelf-life of food products in association with bacteriocins (Sulthana et.al, 2020), and they are also used in the field of  microscopy (Dykman et.al, 2011). Gold Nanoparticles have been used to combat Tuberculosis by coating them on the outer membrane vesicles of Mycobacterium which mediated immune response (George et.al, 2022)
3. Copper: Copper, due to its low cost, its synthesis is necessary and of high priority. Their antibacterial property against pathogenic bacteria like Klebsiella pneumoniae (Chaudhary et.al, 2019) makes it an important nanoparticle in the field of medicine. They can be chemically synthesized by various techniques like reduction (khan et.al) and even biologically. 
4. Silica: Silica nanoparticles have great stability and pore size which makes them amicable for construction of composites and drug delivery. They are synthesized by various green methods (Karande et.al, 2021). Nano SiO2 induced model has shown its value in the field of research in studying granulomas and fibrosis (Guan et.al, 2022)
5. Fluorescent Nanoparticles: These particles emit specific wavelength of light upon exposure. They may be organic or inorganic, amorphous or crystalline particles. There are of different types like semiconductor quantum dots (SQDs), fluorescent carbon nanoparticles (FCNPs) and rare-earth doped nanoparticles etc; They are used in bacterial enhancement imaging, chemical sensing, animal cellular tracing etc.(Farkkila et.al, 2021).

III. BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS OF NANOPARTICLES

A. Chemical Synthesis

This is basically a bottom up approach, where the atoms form clusters, resulting in the formation of nanoparticles (Abid et.al, 2021). Chemical synthesis is basically using certain chemicals to obtain a desired product.

There are various methods that have been developed to procure the desired nanoparticles:

1. Template / Surface Derivatized Methods:  Using a pattern, like in this case it can be a soft template, where surfactants (Fernandez et.al, 2007) or organic molecules (Poolkkandy et.al, 2020) are used and the next one is hard template where meso-channels are filled (Hernandez et.al, 2019) and these are made from porous solids like silica (Fernandez et.al, 2007).
2. Chemical Reduction Method: Reduction itself gives us a clue of the usage of a reducing agent in this method like sodium borohydride (NaBH4), N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), ascorbate etc; used in AgNP synthesis. Primarily reduces the Ag+ ions to Ag metal followed by cluster formation which is then stabilized by certain agents and the AgNP is obtained (Chugh et.al, 2021).
3. Solvothermal Methods: There is a usage of surfactant agent that is added after the metals are thermally decomposed by boiling or under high pressure (Fernandez-Garcia et.al, 2007). Mainly used for ferrite and their corresponding composites (Shaikh et.al, 2020)
4. Polyol Process: In this method a glycol solvent like ethylene glycol is used  (Chugh et.al, 2021) and upon several hours of heating is needed to synthesize NPs. Semiconductor NPs, Metallic oxides, alloy NPs are synthesized using this method (Bensebaa, 2012)
5. Tollen’s Method: This method is easy where there is usage of tollen’s reagent [Ag(NH3)2]+ , Ag+ as source and as a stabilizing agent for the synthesis of AgNPs (Chugh et.al, 2021). There has also been a hybrid technique that has come up where tollen’s method is used in combination with phytochemicals using olive leaf extracts and rosemary leaf extracts to synthesize silver nanoparticles (Abudalo et.al, 2019).

B. Biological or Green Synthesis

This is also a bottom up approach of synthesis. As chemical synthesis involves usage of chemicals, few of them are hazardous; it was more apt for the usage of biological organisms for the synthesis of nanoparticles for its more natural and has become more attractive than other traditional methods.

There are two ways in this synthesis:

1. Extra Cellular Synthesis: Where the process of synthesis takes place outside the living cells.  Cell biomass filtrate synthesis of NPs (Hamida et.al, 2021) cell-free, culture medium based synthesis of NPs.
2. Intracellular Synthesis: Mainly the production of NPs is inside the living cell as to the counterpart synthesis. This is more complicated than the former synthesis as there can be errors or complications during this method but both are eco-friendly ways.
3. Green Synthesis System:  This involves the usage of the pigments, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates etc; for the NPs production. Eg; pigments like C-phycoerythrin, carotenoid etc; are used in the NPs production (Hamida et.al, 2021).

C. Living Organisms for NPs Synthesis

This involves using plants, fungi, bacteria, viruses (Kapoor et.al, 2021), lichens (Hamida et.al, 2021), actinomycetes, diatoms etc; for NPs synthesis.

The nanoparticles synthesized for these beings will possess the same property as the chemical or physically synthesized ones like AMA, antioxidants and for characterization UV visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction etc; are used (Baran et.al, 2021) e.g.; Using virus, the quantum dots can be produced, this is used in DNA engineering & in pharmaceutal industry, and marine microbes like Oscillatoriawillei are utilized for inorganic nanoparticle production (Kapoor et.al, 2021).

  IV. EFFECTS OF NANOPARTICLES

The types and synthesis of nanoparticles can lead us into the next section of the review, regarding their effects that they can cause to the environment, human beings and microorganisms.

The first thing to be considered is the source of nanoparticles. They can be stationary sources like coal, oil, and gas fired stationary combustion sources (Biswas et.al, 2005), mobile emissions like diesel, LPG, CNG Vehicles, occupational setting like industrial processes, cleaning, disposal etc. 

A. Effects on Human Health

These nanoparticles can get deposited in respiratory regions for e.g., Fine PM2.5 (Particulate Matter 2.5) particles leading to fatal respiratory problems. (Biswas et.al, 2005), Airborne nanoparticles have high mobility leading to their deposition in the alveolar tissue causing adverse effects, like chronic bronchitis, the NPs like TiO2 can also induce aging (Wu et al, 2009), Translocation occurs at the interstitial sites in the olfactory pathways and HT29 (Human colorectal adenocarcinoma) cells had reduced viability due to AuNPs. (Sani et al, 2021)

B. Effects on Environment

The nanoparticles can get released into the environment from industries, waste management or from the other sources mentioned above.

They can get accumulated in the soil disrupting the soil enzymes like nitrate reductase, β- galactosidase etc. The research also revealed that NPs oxidation lead to the ROS production in living cells.

There have toxic influences on plant physiology like lowering of transpiration rate, decline in the growth and development of the zooplanktons and phytoplankton (Khanna et al, 2021).

C. Effects on Microorganisms

NPs have shown negative effects on the pure cultures of E.coli, Bacillus subtilis etc. (Khanna et al, 2021). There has been cell wall damage in S.cerevisiae due to the exposure of ZnO NPs (Soares et.al, 2021), there was even loss of membrane integrity and apoptic cell death. CuO and Fe3O4 showed negative impact on soil microbial population in the exposed soil region (Khanna et.al, 2021). The ZnO and Ag NPs inhibit the natural gut microflora (Yoo et.al, 2021).

There are not all harmful outcomes of NPs, they have helped mankind and there have been a lot of developments in the technology and strategies like material substitution, sensor detection, process emission control etc; to overcome the above-mentioned problems. There are devices or instrumentation to collect these NPs like Thermophoretic collection, Electrostatic collection, filtration etc. (Biswas et.al, 2005).

D. Nanotools

To recognize and understand the data we have in this field various tools and software. There have been various algorithms like GTDWFE that is used for prediction; PARGT is a software that was created using R software and Python (Nahvi et.al, 2022). This helped in learning the potentiality of chemotherapy with nanotechnology efficacy.

There has been utilization of bacteriophages and whole virions for pathogenic bacterial detection for biosensors have been used as the nanotools for diagnostics e.g., when T4 phage was seen successfully oriented on to the Au surface (biosensor) (Richter et.al, 2018) (Paczesny et.al, 2020) (Agnihotri et.al, 2022).

There are even tools that is previously mentioned for characterization of the nanoparticles like UV-spectroscopy, TEM, SEM, AFM, for the production of biofuel and bioenergy and numerous other fields (Nalluri et.al, 2021) and there are a few lithography and fabrication systems as well (Tinker, 2004).

V. APPLICATIONS AND RECENT UPDATES IN NANOTECHNOLOGY

There are numerous latest applications in this field that are generating and being found every single day in numerous fields.

A. Medicine

1. Using Proteusmirabilis which is a gram-negative bacterium, the silver nanoparticles synthesized from them are being used in treatment of burn infections induced by bacteria like Klebsiellapneumoniae, Staphylococcusaureus etc. (Yasr et.al, 2022).
2. Chitosan nanoparticles have proved to have good pharmaceutical properties and also help in stimulation of interferon synthesis by macrophages to act against antiviral infections (Boroumand et.al, 2021).
3. Hemophilusinfluenzae that causes numerous diseases and infections like septicemia, cellulitis, and meningitis can be detected much early without time consuming by loop mediated isothermal amplification associated with nanoparticle-based lateral flow biosensor assay (Cao et.al, 2022).
4. Rapid detection of Brucellosis infection by biosensors with functionalized nanoparticles i.e., Nano biosensors have been promising (Ahangari et.al, 2021).
5. Copper oxide NPs synthesized from Streptomyces sp MHM38 has proven effective against Paracetamol - induced liver and kidney damage and against Paracetamol-induced oxidative stress (Bukhari et.al, 2021).

B. Agriculture

Metal Nanoparticle products obtained by green synthesis approach like Nano fertilizers, Nano pesticides, Nano fungicides have shown increase in the productivity of yield (Bahrulolum et.al, 2021).

C. Industrial Applications

1. Super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles synthesized by precipitation have been useful in drug delivery, magnetic imaging and many more.
2. With the soluble nanoparticles and the robust template methods they have been beneficial in fuel cells and multiphase systems (Stark et.al, 2012) and solar panels (Mughal et.al, 2021).
3. Organic nanoparticles (lipid, liposomes etc) are helpful in xenobiotics, essential oils production (Kutawa et.al, 2021).
4. Carbon nanoparticles in the orthopedic implants, atomic force microscopes probe (Kutawa et.al, 2021).

D. Miscellaneous

1. Antimicrobial activity: Biosynthesis of Copper NPs using a psychrophilic marine bacterium has shown AMA (antimicrobial activity) according to the studies (John et.al, 2021) proven beneficial to biomedical science. Copper NPs have shown similar AMA property synthesized from ginger roots (Abbas et.al, 2022) against E.coli and S.aureus. Similarly Silver NPs from Lactobacillus gasseri bacteria (Jabbar et.al, 2021).
2. There has been a study showing micropolar fluid having nanoparticles in coalesce with gyrotactic microorganisms of microelements to understand the dynamics of hydromagnetic flow of the micropolar fluid which is beneficial in microbial enhanced oil recovery by bioconvection (Koriko et.al, 2022).
3. Silver and Copper NPs have shown a positive consequence in inhibiting biofilm formation by the Mastitis pathogens. (Lange et.al, 2021) (Hussein et.al, 2021).

There are a few companies like Alnis Bioscience, Inc., BASF, Immunicon, Nanosphere, Inc.,NanoPharm AG that commercializes nanomaterials for bio and medical applications (Salata, 2004).

Conclusion

Even though Nanotechnology requires high intricate methods and proficient skills to handle and work with, their evolving applications in heterogenous fields are worth the effort, but their risks should also to be kept in mind while using them. Although the availability of raw products to produce the NPs are many, their processing and commercializing will take time and is not a layman’s forte. Their types, synthesis, effects of NPs, tools and software used, applications can be a holistic view in comprehending them for universal betterment with minimal consequences.

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Copyright

Copyright © 2022 Sushma J Ballal, Yashwanth C , Chethana BR , Dr. Anuroopa . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.