Properties of silver and copper nanoparticles obtained by the methods of «green» chemistry

Abstract

Significant challenges for the modern international community are population growth and climate change, which the latest technologies help to solve. These include nanotechnologies capable of positively influencing the quality of agricultural products, minimizing the negative impact of pesticides on the environment and human health, and increasing production productivity and food safety. Nanotechnology helps minimize waste by making more efficient products, leads to the development of precision agriculture and efficient resource management. The minimization of the production of hazardous substances, the reduction of energy consumption in green nanotechnology and the almost absence of the formation of toxic chemicals make green nanomaterials widely used and desired in various fields of human activity. Traditional and new methods of formation of nanosized materials are considered, attention is focused on their advantages and disadvantages. Extracellular and intracellular ways of nanoparticle formation, ascending and descending methods are described. The direct aim of the work was to establish the possibility of green synthesis of CuO nanoparticles using extracts of peppermint and lemon balm. Plant extracts were prepared by ethanol extraction from leaves in an extractor. The extract was separated from the plant material by filtering through filter paper. Copper nanoparticles were synthesized using the reduction reaction of copper sulfate in the presence of peppermint or lemon balm extract, which played the role of both a reducer and a nanoparticle stabilizer. The paper shows the possibility of synthesizing copper oxide nanoparticles using a extracts of peppermint leaves (Mentha piperita) and lemon balm leaves (Melissa officinalis L.) method. TEM morphological study of Cu0 metal nanoparticles in the volume of polymer nanocomposites and created by the green synthesis method showed that the average size of copper (Cu0) nanoparticles is 3.5 and 12.2 nm, respectively. It was found that the thermo-chemical method of creating nanocomposites is cheap and accessible, but causes the formation of small metal nanoparticles, unlike the polymer nanocomposite created by the method of green synthesis, which is ecological and occurs at low temperatures.