Optical and antimicrobial properties of silver nanoparticles synthesized via green route using honey

Abstract

Among the various green synthesis methods for nanoparticle synthesis, the honey-mediated green synthesis of nanoparticles is a fast, safe, biocompatible, and cost-effective method. In the present work, we demonstrate the sunlight-induced honey-mediated synthesis of silver nanoparticles and report the effect of light intensity, its color, and exposure time on the formation of nanoparticles. The visual inspection followed by UV-Vis spectral studies was performed to confirm the formation of silver nanoparticles. The HRTEM measurement confirms the formation of polydispersed silver particles. We further report the excellent antimicrobial activity of the synthesized nanoparticles against various strains of bacteria, which is found to be comparable to that of the antibiotic drug of choice. Our study points to further research on the possibility of considering these green synthesized silver nanoparticles as an alternative to antibiotics.

Keywords

• green synthesis
• silver nanoparticles
• antimicrobial activity
• optical properties