Microbial-Mediated Nanoparticles
for Sustainable Environment:
Antimicrobial and Photocatalytic
Applications
S. B. Jaffri and K. S. Ahmad
1 Introduction
Nanotechnology and nanoscience have been associated with novel developments
and advancements aimed at human welfare since many decades. Among different
nanoscale materials synthesized using varied nano-routes, nanoparticles (NPs) have
gained an immensely significant position due to their facile fabrication methods,
cost effectiveness and eco-friendly attributes. The syntheses of NPs have been
usually emphasized upon more than other nanomaterials by the virtue of their
favorable aspects, i.e., catalytic, electrical, optical, magnetic, chemical and photoelectrochemical properties. Such unique physicochemical aspects of NPs can be
attributed to a myriad of factors, especially their minimal size besides the quantum
effect and facile tunability of NPs electronic energy bands by means of size effect.
Another significant cause of such extraordinary characteristics can be an augmentation in the surface area to the mass ratio of NPs leading to an ascendency in the
performance of the surface atoms in comparison to the atoms existing in the internal
region of particles.
Nano-biotechnology is a progressing field nanotechnology related with the utilization of biotic components for nanoscale developments and is impacting human and
his ecospheric region in an influential way (Zhao et al. 2020; Lestrell et al. 2020).
NPs, which usually are referred to those particles which possess a size of 100 nm or
less in at least one of their dimensional features, differ greatly from the bulk portion
of their counterparts. Therefore, NPs are proven to be highly reactive in nanoscale
toward other molecules than their same bulk fragment due to an enhancement in
the surface to volume ratio. Prodigious deals of industries have been making use
of NPs, especially biomedicine (Lateef et al. 2018; Elegbede and Lateef 2019). For
S. B. Jaffri · K. S. Ahmad (B)
Department of Environmental Sciences, Fatima Jinnah Women University, The Mall, 46000
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
e-mail: chemist.phd33@yahoo.com; dr.k.s.ahmad@fjwu.edu.pk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Lateef et al. (eds.), Microbial Nanobiotechnology, Materials Horizons: From Nature
to Nanomaterials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4777-9_10
287
for Sustainable Environment:
Antimicrobial and Photocatalytic
Applications
S. B. Jaffri and K. S. Ahmad
1 Introduction
Nanotechnology and nanoscience have been associated with novel developments
and advancements aimed at human welfare since many decades. Among different
nanoscale materials synthesized using varied nano-routes, nanoparticles (NPs) have
gained an immensely significant position due to their facile fabrication methods,
cost effectiveness and eco-friendly attributes. The syntheses of NPs have been
usually emphasized upon more than other nanomaterials by the virtue of their
favorable aspects, i.e., catalytic, electrical, optical, magnetic, chemical and photoelectrochemical properties. Such unique physicochemical aspects of NPs can be
attributed to a myriad of factors, especially their minimal size besides the quantum
effect and facile tunability of NPs electronic energy bands by means of size effect.
Another significant cause of such extraordinary characteristics can be an augmentation in the surface area to the mass ratio of NPs leading to an ascendency in the
performance of the surface atoms in comparison to the atoms existing in the internal
region of particles.
Nano-biotechnology is a progressing field nanotechnology related with the utilization of biotic components for nanoscale developments and is impacting human and
his ecospheric region in an influential way (Zhao et al. 2020; Lestrell et al. 2020).
NPs, which usually are referred to those particles which possess a size of 100 nm or
less in at least one of their dimensional features, differ greatly from the bulk portion
of their counterparts. Therefore, NPs are proven to be highly reactive in nanoscale
toward other molecules than their same bulk fragment due to an enhancement in
the surface to volume ratio. Prodigious deals of industries have been making use
of NPs, especially biomedicine (Lateef et al. 2018; Elegbede and Lateef 2019). For
S. B. Jaffri · K. S. Ahmad (B)
Department of Environmental Sciences, Fatima Jinnah Women University, The Mall, 46000
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
e-mail: chemist.phd33@yahoo.com; dr.k.s.ahmad@fjwu.edu.pk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
A. Lateef et al. (eds.), Microbial Nanobiotechnology, Materials Horizons: From Nature
to Nanomaterials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4777-9_10
287