ABSTRACT
In today’s scenario, explosive rise in production of inorganic chemicals that causes numerous health related issues and also causing environmental pollution is of great concerned. Heavy metals in industrial effluents, such as cadmium, lead, mercury, copper and zinc, are a major source of pollutants causing air, water and land pollution, leading to serious illness and loss of life all over the world. Besides, these metals are non-biodegradable, which makes them more difficult to remediate. Bioremediation is one of the promising solutions for the decontamination of the environment. In bioremediation, microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and protists or their enzymes are directly used for the degradation of hazardous environmental contaminants. They convert the pollutants or waste into less toxic forms or harmless products. During this process, the microorganisms break the toxic compounds into less toxic compounds or degrade them completely. Bioleaching, bioreactor, biostimulation, bioaugmentation, composting, land farming and phytoremediation are some of technologies included in bioremediation. With the advance nanotechnology, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are gaining remarkable consideration due to its ability to act as potential bioremediating agents. Silver nanoparticles in combination with plants and microorganisms have been found to enhance the remediation of environmental pollution that consist of large tracts of polluted sites plagued with the waste materials. The use of nanotechnology in wastewater remediation is taken under consideration by some scientists. Hence, nanotechnologies have the ability to minimize pollution by improving the microbial activity in specific wastes and could potentially catalyse the degradation of most of the environmental contaminants, and this helps in reducing the overall cost.
