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Application of Nanoclusters in Environmental and Biological Fields

Experimental and Theoretical Approaches

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Handbook of Green and Sustainable Nanotechnology

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Abstract

The rapid modernization of our society and development of economy has escalated the environmental pollution to a great extent. Chemical waste from industries and agricultural fields is discharged into the environment in large quantities, posing a direct threat to human and aquatic life. New technologies are constantly being explored for its effectiveness in environmental monitoring and remediation processes. Nanotechnology is one such technique which showed promising contributions to environmental and climate protection. Nanoparticles have been extensively utilized for contaminant remediation from the atmosphere owing to their small size (1–100 nm), compositions, shapes, high surface to volume ratio, and optical properties. It also features a significant contribution in various fields like biomedical applications, electronic devices, cosmetics, and disinfectants. Recently, nanoclusters (NCs), a class of nanoparticles which consists of few to hundreds of metal atoms with various dimensions and size distribution, have been used with good effect in environmental monitoring processes and biomedical applications. Because of the quantum size effect and exceptional discrete energy level, metal NC features excellent properties such as strong fluorescence, photoluminescence, and biocompatibility. The metal NCs such as gold, silver, copper, and platinum exhibit great photoluminescence property due to quantum dot effect. Among these, gold and silver nanoclusters have been extensively studied for their potent efficiency in environmental monitoring and biomedical applications. Numerous theoretical studies have also been performed to understand the nature and interaction of AuNCs and AgNCs in the vicinity of biomedical applications. In this chapter, a brief introduction of NCs and their applications in various intriguing areas of environmental and biological sciences have been discussed. The main objective of this chapter comprises a deeper understanding of metal NCs so that they can be functionalized and applied to a variety of environmental issues and biomedical treatment advancements.

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Abbreviations

BSA:

Bovine serum albumin

DFT:

Density functional theory

FTIR:

Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy

NC:

Nanocluster

NP:

Nanoparticles

TEM:

Transmission electron microscopy

TRY:

Trypsin

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

    Dipankar Sutradhar, Sourav Roy & Ruchi Gaur

Authors
  1. Dipankar Sutradhar
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  2. Sourav Roy
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  3. Ruchi Gaur
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, India

    Uma Shanker

  2. Chemistry and EVSC, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA

    Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain

  3. Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

    Manviri Rani

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Sutradhar, D., Roy, S., Gaur, R. (2023). Application of Nanoclusters in Environmental and Biological Fields. In: Shanker, U., Hussain, C.M., Rani, M. (eds) Handbook of Green and Sustainable Nanotechnology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16101-8_32

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