Application of digital colorimeter for preliminary characterization of gold nanoparticle swarms produced by Termitomyces heimii using a novel Bioinspired Microfluidics assay

Abstract

Fungi appear to be promising for large scale production of nanoparticles (NPs) as these are simpler to grow both in the laboratory and at industrial scale. This paper reports a novel microfluidics based assay system to detect Gold bioreduction capacity of different tissues in tissue based and cell free environment. Using sterile microtestplate, different tissues of Termitomyces heimii Natarajan mature fruitbodies were tested forbioreduction with 200 Mu L chloroauric acid (one mM) at an interval of 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 120 min and 12, 24 and 48 hours. The results in terms of production of distinct nanoparticles were directly visualized microscopically and using mobile based digital colorimeter. Membrane filtered sterile water-soluble extracts (SWSE) from the same tissues were similarly screened. The results manifested by mono and polydisperse GNPs and microparticles of mixed size groups demonstrated that cell free system is potentially useful forbioinspired fabrication of GNPs.