Green Revolution in Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology has now started transforming the facet to green technology, especially in the synthesis process. Studies have been initiated and recent reports are released in this regard. It is obvious to realize the possibilities of green revolution in the synthesis process by taking the example of the preparation of nanosized metallic particles. Generally, in such a synthesis process, the corresponding metallic salt is made to undergo  chemical reduction in presence of a reducing agent. Reducing agents such as sodium borohydride, lithium borohydride etc., were used so far. However, it is quite evident that these compounds are highly toxic and inflammable and may lead to harmful byproducts. Hence they are a threat to the ecosystem. Hopefully, it has been found that natural reducing agents present in the plant materials can take over the role of  the above said chemicals. Since at the same time being a reducing agent, some plant extracts could act as capping agents as well, which can serve as a decisive factor in controlling the nanosize and suppress the aggregation among  the particles formed. In fact, the partially greened synthesis process is proposed to be fully converted green, make the field green revolutionized, is the immediate future objective. In this prospective, our group of researchers are involved in the search of such a synthesis process.