Abstract

  Copper (Cu) is known to have antibacterial and antifungal properties; also it is non-toxic to mammals. These properties thus make Copper nanoparticles (Cu-NP) synthesis an attractive area. A number of methods for producing Cu-NPs have been developed using both physical and chemical approaches, which involves elevated temperatures, inert atmospheres, large amount of surfactants and organic solvents. However, the major limitations in the synthesis of CuNPs are their ease of oxidation to CuO or Cu2O during preparation and storage. Therefore, alternative methods have been developed to synthesize CuNP in the presence of polymers and surfactants as stabilizer. There are some recent reports on a successful synthesis of Cu-NPs in aqueous solution, using chitosan which involve additional reducing and stabilizing agents at various steps that are associated with environmental toxicity. In green synthesis method, preparation of Cu-NPs, colloidal stability in aqueous media using chitosan, a biopolymer as a reducing and capping agent. The choice of chitosan as a stabilizer of the Cu-NPs is because of its ability to chelate metals, which makes a perfect material for metal NP synthesis. The synthesis of NPs using polymer has been promising due to their ease of processing, solubility, biocompatibility, less toxicity and also because of the possibility of controlling the growth of the resulting NPs. These NPs generated are strongly attached to the chitosan due to the chemical bond between the electron rich nitrogen present in the amino groups of the polymer and copper. The use of biopolymer as capping and or reducing agents represents an environmentally friendly alternative to hazardous organic solvents. The present study suggests the utility of Copper-chitosan fused nanoparticles as an effective fungicidal agent against phytopathogens. The results showed that, these particles are effective at three sprays at an interval of every 7 days and at thrice a month frequency. The suggested sprays showed the significant fungicidal action to the crop against wide variety of phytopathogens.

Keywords: Copper-Chitosan Nanoparticles; Antifungal Potential; Non-Toxic; Biodegradable; Phyto-Pathogens

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Citation

Citation: Akshma Koul., et al. "Copper-Chitosan Fused Nanoparticles as A Best Possible Remedy Against Fungal Phyto-Pathogens". Acta Scientific Agriculture 4.1 (2020): 69-72.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Akshma Koul., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.