Green synthesized nanospherical silver for selective and sensitive sensing of Cd2+ colorimetrically

Abstract

We report here a facile, green and one-pot synthesis of nano-spherical silver (NSS) using Bombax ceiba leaf extract (BCLE) as both a reducing and stabilizing agent. The synthesized NSS has been characterized using UV-visible, FT-IR, XRD, HR-TEM, EDX, SEM and EDX mapping analysis and the formation and stabilization mechanism are discussed. The green synthesized NSS was tested for selective and sensitive sensing of Cd²⁺ colorimetrically in the presence of interfering metal ions. The limit of detection (LOD) for Cd²⁺ is found to be 1.5 × 10⁻⁹ mol L⁻¹. This proposed method can be successfully applied to determine the concentration of Cd²⁺ in water samples at the nano-molar level.