Biogenic proceedings and characterization of copper-gold nanoalloy: Evaluation of their innate antimicrobial and catalytic activities

Abstract

Crystallized polyhedral triangular-shaped Au-Cu nanoparticles (NPs) have been biosynthesized using the cell-free extract of the pathogenic fungal strain of Aspergillus niger. The bioreduction was monitored and characterized by UV-Visible spectroscopy, XRD, TEM, and NMR and confirmed the synthesized NPs to be crystallized polydispersed particles of 23–199 nm having FCC lattice. FTIR analysis predicted the amide region carbonyl group showed strong binding ability with metal, which acts as a capping agent and provides stability in the medium, efficient to inhibit various pathogenic bacteria and fungi at the minimum inhibitory concentration 0.0039 and 5 mg mL⁻¹, respectively. On performing the bio-perspective analysis, the cytotoxicity assay detects a reduction in MTT levels, anticipating the normal functioning of the mitochondria and cell viability in comparison with controls and excellent significance of the catalytic activity, cell toxicity and reactive oxygen species production rate.

Keywords:

• Antimicrobials
• Aspergillus niger
• biosynthesis
• catalytic activity
• nanoparticles

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge AIRF JNU New Delhi for NMR study, SAIF AIIMS New Delhi for TEM micrograph analysis and NIT Raipur for XRD, FTIR analysis for conducting the experiments with proper interpretation.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The study was financially supported by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India under young scientist startup research grant (YSS/2014/000202).