Waste to health: Bioleaching of nanoparticles from  e–waste and their medical applications Devipriya R Majumder

Ambica Khetarpal; Sangeeta Talwar; Mahesh Verma

Volume : III, Issue : II, February - 2013

Waste to health: Bioleaching of nanoparticles from e–waste and their medical applications Devipriya R Majumder

Ambica Khetarpal, Sangeeta Talwar, Mahesh Verma

Abstract :

World today is run by the electronic gadgets which have become in despensable, but they are a bane to the environment once they turn into electronic waste or ‘e–waste’. Due to frequent upgradation of gadgets, enormous accumulation of e–waste and its recycling for extraction of essential metals via traditional means are a matter of real concern especially in developing countries, due to release of hazardous materials in nature. Similarly production of metal nanoparticles by physical and chemical methods are too harsh and non–ecofriendly. Also such nano metals have limite shelf life. The economy of the e–waste recycling industry depends on the recovery of precious metals such as copper, gold and silver. Therefore e–waste can be recycled and metal nanoparticle can be produced in eco–friendly manner. Bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi have been known for ages for their potential to leach out metals from their surrounding over the last couple of decades. Recently weeds, popularly known as ‘enemies of the farmer’, have also been used successfully for the synthesis of gold, copper and silver nanoparticles. The use of natural eco–friendly sources such as microorganisms and weed extracts for the production of nanomaterials is a promising approach, owing to the feasibility and cost–effectiveness of the process. The metal nanoparticles obtained after bioleaching of e–waste can find a range of applications especially in the field of medicine. These applications include drug delivery, gene therapy, antimicrobials, medical prosthetics and tissue engineering. Thus, it is possible to ‘marry’ the two diverse fields as ‘e–waste to nano’ for biomedical sciences, thereby providing an active area of research in nanotechnology