Utilization of Aquatic Weed for Environmental and Rapid Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles

In the present study, we demonstrated an effective cost and environmentally benign method to synthesize the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using aquatic weed namely water hyacinth as a reducing agent. Ultraviolet irradiation was also combined in the process to enhance the reaction rate. The aqueous silver ions mixed with water hyacinth leaf extract under UV irradiation were reduced to AgNPs. The mixture color was changed from light yellow to yellowish-brown color within 5 min due to excitation of surface plasmon vibrations in AgNPs. The formation of AgNPs was confirmed by UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrometry, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The AgNPs were found to be polycrystalline in nature and spherical particles with mean diameter of 12.54 +/- 0.19 nm. The XRD pattern peaked at different diffraction angles corresponding to the (111), (200), (220), and (311) planes indicated that AgNPs have face-centered cubic (fcc) unit cell structure. This proposed method revealed that unwanted plant can utilize in nano-manufacturing as well.