Redistribution of Elements in Microbial Biomass in the Process of Silver and Gold Nanoparticles Synthesis Studied by Neutron Activation Analysis

Marina Vladimirovna Frontasyev

Abstract

Reactor neutron activation analysis was applied to characterize the elemental content of a microbial biomass in the process of synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles from silver nitrate and chloroauric acid solutions. It was established that this process is accompanied by redistribution of some essential elements such as Ca, Cl, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, U, Zn in microbial biomass both in case of different concentration loadings of silver and gold in aqueous solutions of silver nitrate and chloroauric acid, respectively, and in case of different incubation times. The role of cell surface adsorption in the formation of nanoparticles is discussed