A Clean-Green Synthesis of Platinum Nanoparticles Utilizing a Pernicious Weed Lantana (Lantana Camara)

A rapid, reproducible single step method is proposed for synthesizing platinum nanoparticles using an invasive weed lantana (Lantana camara, L). The method involves mixing of platinum (VI) solution, lantana leaf extract and ascorbic acid in appropriate concentrations and keeping the mixture at 95°C for 8 min. The collective action of ascorbic acid and leaf extract reduced the chloroplatinic acid to platinum nanoparticles and leaf extract then served the additional purpose of stabilizing the nanoparticles. The resulting nanoparticles have an average size of 35 nm and crystallized in face centred cubic symmetry. The course of the synthesis was trekked by UV-visible spectrophotometry and the characterization of the nanoparticles was done with scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser Raman spectroscopy. Particle size distribution was estimated by dynamic light scattering and the crystal structure was determined by XRD. The purity of the product was checked by EDAX.