Biosynthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles from Penicillium notatum and their application to improve efficiency of antibiotics

Nanomaterials can be synthesized by physical, chemical and biological methods. The biological method of synthesis of silver nanoparticles have more advantage and gives high purity. Silver nanoparticles are having antibacterial properties and can be synthesized by any microbes and plants with minimal effort. The present study includes the synthesis of silver nanoparticles from penicillium notatum which is well known producer of penicillium antibiotic. The produced nanoparticles of silver are then characterized by UV-vis spectrophotometer for primary confirmation, XRD for structural analysis, FTIR for functional group, SEM, TEM and AFM for morphological analysis. The SEM and AFM results revealed that the size of silver nanoparticles were of range 55-65 nm. TEM result reveals the spherical shape of silver nanoparticles. Optimization of silver nanoparticles method is also performed to understand the maximum yield at specific substrate concentration, pH and salt concentration. The silver nanoparticles are then conjugated with six antibiotics for antibacterial activity by zone of inhibition method. The result indicated that silver nanoparticles increased the efficiency of streptomycin 2 fold and erythromycin by 3 fold.