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T. I. Shaheen et al.
6 Characterization of NPs Synthesized by Fungi
An important stage in mycosynthesis of NPs is physico-chemical characterization
of the fabricated nanoparticles. In general, by knowing the size, shape, surface area,
homogeneity and other features, it will provide worth information about nano-scale
systems facilitating the control of NPs synthesis for commercial applications. After
the reaction, produced colloidal NPs can be separated by centrifugation at high speed
or drying in oven and then can be observed via advanced nano-characterization
systems (El-Batal et al. 2018; Elegbede et al. 2020; Mohamed et al. 2019; Salem
et al. 2020). Some common tools and techniques can be used for NPs characterization involving color change test, UV-visible spectrometry, Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, electron microscopy (TEM,
SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), powder Xray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) (Titus et al. 2019).
Microscopy-based methods such as TEM, SEM and AFM are considered direct
techniques for study the morphological characters of NPs. In particular, both TEM
and SEM have been extensively utilized to determine the shape and sizes of metal
NPs (Mahanty et al. 2019). Spectroscopy-based approaches as UV-vis, DLS, FT-IR,
XRD, EDS and Raman are considered indirect methods for gaining data related to
surface structure, composition, crystalline phase and other properties of metal NPs.
UV-visible spectroscopy is a generally employed system to characterize metal NPs
(Ma et al. 2017; Qu et al. 2020). The wavelengths in the range between 200–700 nm
are commonly used to characterize a range of metal and metal oxide NPs. Spectrophotometric measurements of absorbance in the different wavelength according
to NPs determination, e.g., wavelength ranges between 500–550 nm, 300–400 nm
and 400–460 nm are utilized to characterize gold, zinc oxide and silver NPs, respectively (Alsharif et al. 2020; Aygün et al. 2020; Fouda et al. 2018; Qu et al. 2020).
FT-IR spectroscopy is suitable for characterizing the functional and surface chemistry of NPs. Biological functional groups (e.g., enzymes, carbonyls, proteins and
others) attached to metal NPs surface and the other chemical residues that remain
on the surface are detected via FT-IR spectroscopy (El-Sayyad et al. 2019; Fouda
et al. 2019b; Mohamed et al. 2019). When the mycosynthesis is completed, the
size average, shape and dispersion state of metal and metal oxide NPs are typically
measured using AFM, SEM and TEM. The surface of NPs scanning by TEM and
SEM is utilized for morphological properties on the nanometer to micrometer size
scale. TEM has a 1000-fold higher resolution image than SEM (Gao et al. 2019;
Kalpana et al. 2018; Molnár et al. 2018). The elemental composition of NPs is
generally recognized using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). AFM provides
image in two and three dimensions that showing the surface of NPs. The resolution
in the vertical, or Z-axis, is limited by the tool of vibration environment, whereas the
resolution in the horizontal, or X–Y-axis, is limited by the diameter of the tip used
for scanning (Singh et al. 2018). AFM affords surface characterization on the atomic
scale size. XRD is applied for properties and identification of the crystallite structure
of metal NPs. X-rays penetrate into the NPs and the resulting diffraction pattern is
T. I. Shaheen et al.
6 Characterization of NPs Synthesized by Fungi
An important stage in mycosynthesis of NPs is physico-chemical characterization
of the fabricated nanoparticles. In general, by knowing the size, shape, surface area,
homogeneity and other features, it will provide worth information about nano-scale
systems facilitating the control of NPs synthesis for commercial applications. After
the reaction, produced colloidal NPs can be separated by centrifugation at high speed
or drying in oven and then can be observed via advanced nano-characterization
systems (El-Batal et al. 2018; Elegbede et al. 2020; Mohamed et al. 2019; Salem
et al. 2020). Some common tools and techniques can be used for NPs characterization involving color change test, UV-visible spectrometry, Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, electron microscopy (TEM,
SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), powder Xray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) (Titus et al. 2019).
Microscopy-based methods such as TEM, SEM and AFM are considered direct
techniques for study the morphological characters of NPs. In particular, both TEM
and SEM have been extensively utilized to determine the shape and sizes of metal
NPs (Mahanty et al. 2019). Spectroscopy-based approaches as UV-vis, DLS, FT-IR,
XRD, EDS and Raman are considered indirect methods for gaining data related to
surface structure, composition, crystalline phase and other properties of metal NPs.
UV-visible spectroscopy is a generally employed system to characterize metal NPs
(Ma et al. 2017; Qu et al. 2020). The wavelengths in the range between 200–700 nm
are commonly used to characterize a range of metal and metal oxide NPs. Spectrophotometric measurements of absorbance in the different wavelength according
to NPs determination, e.g., wavelength ranges between 500–550 nm, 300–400 nm
and 400–460 nm are utilized to characterize gold, zinc oxide and silver NPs, respectively (Alsharif et al. 2020; Aygün et al. 2020; Fouda et al. 2018; Qu et al. 2020).
FT-IR spectroscopy is suitable for characterizing the functional and surface chemistry of NPs. Biological functional groups (e.g., enzymes, carbonyls, proteins and
others) attached to metal NPs surface and the other chemical residues that remain
on the surface are detected via FT-IR spectroscopy (El-Sayyad et al. 2019; Fouda
et al. 2019b; Mohamed et al. 2019). When the mycosynthesis is completed, the
size average, shape and dispersion state of metal and metal oxide NPs are typically
measured using AFM, SEM and TEM. The surface of NPs scanning by TEM and
SEM is utilized for morphological properties on the nanometer to micrometer size
scale. TEM has a 1000-fold higher resolution image than SEM (Gao et al. 2019;
Kalpana et al. 2018; Molnár et al. 2018). The elemental composition of NPs is
generally recognized using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). AFM provides
image in two and three dimensions that showing the surface of NPs. The resolution
in the vertical, or Z-axis, is limited by the tool of vibration environment, whereas the
resolution in the horizontal, or X–Y-axis, is limited by the diameter of the tip used
for scanning (Singh et al. 2018). AFM affords surface characterization on the atomic
scale size. XRD is applied for properties and identification of the crystallite structure
of metal NPs. X-rays penetrate into the NPs and the resulting diffraction pattern is