Mechanistic aspects of biogenic synthesis of CdS nanoparticles using Bacillus licheniformis

A novel eco-friendly effort has been made for the synthesis of cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanoparticles using bacterial biomass. Although some articles have been reported on CdS nanoparticles synthesis by bacteria, here we have synthesized CdS nanoparticles using nonpathogenic bacteria Bacillus licheniformis MTCC 9555. UV-Vis spectroscopy was carried out to confirm the formation of CdS nanoparticles; the peak occurring at 368 nm gives the indication of synthesis of CdS nanoparticles. The size and morphology of the synthesized CdS nanoparticles were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the nanoparticles are found to have a narrow size of 5.1 ± 0.5 nm with spherical morphology. Further, the nanoparticles were examined by energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy to identify the presence of elements and confirmed the existence of Cd and S in single nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis exhibited 2θ values corresponding to CdS nanocrystals. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) provides the evidence for the presence of proteins as possible biomolecules responsible for the stabilization of the synthesized CdS nanoparticles.