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Silver nanoparticles formation by extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from electroactive bacteria

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Abstract

Microbial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) excreted from microorganisms were a complex natural biological polymer mixture of proteins and polysaccharides, which played an important roles in the transport of metals, such as Ag+. Electroactive bacteria, is an important class of environmental microorganisms, which can use iron or manganese mineral as terminal electron acceptors to generate energy for biosynthesis and cell maintenance. In this work, the EPS extracted of three electroactive bacteria (Shewanella oneidensis, Aeromonas hydrophila, and Pseudomonas putida) were used for reducing Ag+ and forming silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Results showed that all the three microbial EPS could reduce Ag+ to AgNPs. The formed AgNPs were characterized in depth by the UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The main components in the EPS from the three electroactive bacteria were analyzed. The presence of cytochrome c in these EPS was confirmed, and they were found to contribute to the reduction of Ag+ to AgNPs. The results indicated that the EPS of electroactive bacteria could act as a reductant for AgNPs synthesis and could provide new information to understand the fate of metals and their metal nanoparticles in the natural environments.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the NSFC (51322802, 21377123) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities for the partial support of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Shan-Wei Li, Xing Zhang & Guo-Ping Sheng

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  1. Shan-Wei Li
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  2. Xing Zhang
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  3. Guo-Ping Sheng
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Correspondence to Guo-Ping Sheng.

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Responsible editor: Santiago V. Luis

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Li, SW., Zhang, X. & Sheng, GP. Silver nanoparticles formation by extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from electroactive bacteria. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 8627–8633 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6105-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6105-7

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