Facile green synthesis of Phyllanthus emblica extract based Ag-NPs for antimicrobial and response surface methodology based catalytic reduction applications

Silver nanostructures were synthesized by utilizing facile and simple green methodology based on the usage of biogenic Phyllanthus emblica fruit extract. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that the numerous phytochemicals were found to be present in the extract that were responsible for reducing the precursor salt into nanoparticles. After 10 min, the silver nanoparticles were formed in the system while the further nucleation for 30 min resulted in the generation of the silver nanostructures with dual morphology (spherical & rod-like morphology). The reaction time/nucleation time was found to be the major factor responsible for the modulation of the morphology of the biogenic nanomaterials. The crystalline nature with the cubic crystal system was observed in the case of the silver nanostructure via X-ray diffraction analysis. The antimicrobial efficacy investigated for these nanostructures revealed that the silver nanostructures possess comparable or greater efficacy than the selected control. The excellent efficacy is attributed to the smaller size and the peculiar morphological characteristics of the silver nanostructures. The catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol via silver nanostructures was also investigated by using the response surface methodology as an optimization tool. An extremely high percentage reduction value of 96.491 % with the rate constant value of 0.277 min⁻¹ was documented in the case of Ag-NSs. The prepared silver nanostructures were found to be extremely stable till six reuse cycles. Our findings affirm that the efficient synthesis of nanostructures is achieved by using P. emblica fruit extract and the synthesized material further presents excellent viability for antimicrobial and catalytic applications.