Rapid and Green Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles By the Use of An Otherwise Worthless Weed Lantana (Lantana Camara L.)

Abstract

The phyto-fabrication of gold nanoparticles utilizing the highly invasive terrestrialweed Lantana camara, is presented. In an attempt to utilize the entire plant, theextra~ts of all its parts - leaves, stem and root - were employed in variousproportions with the gold precursor, HAuCl4 solution, for the synthesis. Thereduction of gold ions to nanoparticles was tracked using UV-Vis spectroscopy.The electron micrographs of the synthesized nanoparticles revealed the presenceof particles of monodispersed spherical and polydispersed triangular, pentagonal,rod and truncated triangular shapes in sizes ranging 15-55 nm and 7-100 nmrespectively. The presence of gold atoms was confirmed from the EDAX and~-Ray diffraction studies. The FT-IR spectral study indicat~d that the alk~nes mJhe plant extract could have been responsible for the reduct10n of the gold 10ns togold nanoparticles.Key words: Phyto-fabn·cation, Lantana camara, gold nanoparticles, monodispersedparticles, TEM