Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Walnut Shell Powder and Cynara sp. and their Antibacterial Activities

The silver (Ag) is a well-known material with interesting properties (i.e. catalytic activity, antimicrobial, etc.). The nano-sized particles of silver propose enhanced properties due to having relatively higher surface areas. The green synthesis is a promising way of material preparation/production being relatively more environmentally friendly by utilization of less harmful materials. In this work, the plant extracts (Cynara & Walnut shell powder) were used as reaction media for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). The nanoparticles produced via two plant extracts were ~46 nm and ~109 nm in size, respectively. The antibacterial activities of the produced silver nanoparticles (against E. coli and S. aureus species) were determined and minimum effective concentrations (MIC) for antibacterial activity were investigated.