GREEN SYNTHESIS OF SILVER NANOCLUSTERS VIA MELIA AZEDARACH PLANT AND THEIR POTENTIAL TOWARDS CATALYTIC REDUCTION OF 4-NITROPHENOL

Biomolecules present in the plant extracts have potential to reduce metal ions to nanoclusters by a single-step green synthesis approach. In the current study, we have synthesized the silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) from a medicinal plant, Melia azedarach and studied their catalytic activity toward the reduction of 4-nitophenol to 4-aminophenol and organic dyes. Morover, the phytochemical analysis of the plant extract was carried out in order to determine the bioactive compounds present in it. Metallic nature of the synthesized AgNCs was verified by X-ray diffraction study, while their morphology and size of was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy and Zetasizer, respectively. The study revealed that they were 56 +/- 2 nm in size and formed clusters. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy gives information about the different functional groups present in synthesized these NCs. Furthermore, the important catalytic applications, such as catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol in the presence of mild reducing agent NaBH4 and the catalytic degradation of organic dyes was monitored by FTIR. Therefore, these results indicate that the obtained nanomaterials have important applications in industrial areas.