ABSTRACT
The science of nanotechnology, dealing with particles ranging from 1 to 100 nm, is composed of multidisciplinary approaches involving physics, chemistry, biology, material science, and medicine. Growing research in this field has stressed on different synthesis procedures for nanomaterials and their application potential. Green synthesis of nanoparticles mostly consists of bioreduction processes using plants or microbes. Fungi can act as a good bioreductant to synthesize metal nanoparticles both intracellularly and extracellularly, mostly due to the proteins, organic acids, enzyme hydrogenase, and nitrate-dependent reductase released by them. Some common fungi successfully employed for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles are Aspergillus sp., Cladosporium sp., Fusarium sp., Trichothecium sp., Penicillium sp., and Trichoderma sp. mostly from the phyla Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes, and Phycomycetes. Exclusive properties of nanoparticles offer us a wide range of applications in fields of medicine to environmental science, including environmental remediation, hazardous waste management, and metal sequestration. Nanomaterials with a high surface-to-volume ratio have been explored to detect and treat pollutants in various environmental matrixes like wastewater, soil, and sediment. Several batch and column experiments incorporating nanomaterials (nanoscale zerovalent iron, iron complexes, nanopolymers, etc.) have been successfully carried out for the sequestration of Ag, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, H2S, Hg, Ni, Pb, Zn, chlorinated pollutants, etc., by means of adsorption, oxidation–reduction, surface complexation, and other mechanisms. However, most of the nanomaterials utilized in sequestration methods have been synthesized chemically, triggering risk to human and ecological health. Fungi-mediated biosynthesized nanomaterials can be a good alternative for this purpose, being environment friendly for both the synthesis and sequestration part.
