Bio-Inspired Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles: Anticancer Drug Carrier, Catalytic and Bactericidal Potential

Green route was adopted for the synthesis of stable silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) using Cenchrus ciliaris (C. ciliaris) seeds exudates. A variety of techniques were deployed for the characterization of the bio-synthesized Ag-NPs using ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer-UV_Vis, X-ray diffraction-XRD, scanning electron microscopy-SEM, transmission electron microscopy-TEM and fourier transform infrared spectrometry-FTIR. Increasing C. ciliaris concentration leads to a reduction in the particle size accompanied with agglomeration between the NPs. The results demonstrate that Ag-NPs (1-3CC) are less agglomerated and exhibited significant antimicrobial potential against various bacterial strains compared to 4-5CC. In this project performance of nanocatalyst was evaluated on toxic contaminants that exhibit excellent degradation of methylene blue (MB) and congo red (CR) by NaBH4 in an eco-friendly manner. In addition, Ag-NPs were loaded with anticancer drugs (ACD) [doxorubicin (Dox) hydrochloride, and daunorubicin (Dono)] to develop novel drug carrier with high loading capacity and rapid drug adsorption rate to hampered the side effects of ACD. The loading capacity of ACD was investigated as a function of contact time and adsorption dosages had a maximum adsorption capacity of 404.19 and 253.85 mg/g for Dox and Dono respectively. Moreover, kinetic models were conducted to evaluate the adsorption kinetics.