966|Int. J. of Multidisciplinary and Current research, Vol.3 (Sept/Oct 2015) International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current Research Research Article ISSN: 2321-3124 Available at: http://ijmcr.com Process Parameters for Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles using Leaves Extract of Aloe Vera Plant Ahmed A. Moosa 1 , Ali Mousa Ridha 2 and Mustafa Al-Kaser 3 1,2,3 Department of Materials Engineering Technology, Engineering Technical College– Baghdad, Middle Technical University Baghdad, Iraq Accepted 20 Sept 2015, Available online 26 Sept 2015, Vol.3 (Sept/Oct 2015 issue) Abstract In the present study, an environmental friendly synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has been investigated using Aloe Vera plant leaves extract act as reducing and stabilizing agent. The formation of AgNPs was confirmed by changing their color to dark brown due to surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon. The effect of process parameters on synthesis of AgNPs from Aloe Vera leaves extract such as AgNO 3 concentration (molarity), extract volume percent, sunlight exposure time and temperature were studied. The AgNPs obtained were characterized using UV-vis spectroscopy, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), and Fourier Transformation Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). UV-Vis spectroscopy showed the SPR peaks for AgNPs using Aloe Vera leaves extract were between 420-490 nm. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed the AgNPs are spherical in shapes with the average particle diameters between 34 - 102 nm. The best conditions for synthesis of AgNPs using Aloe Vera leaves extract were found at 5 mM AgNO 3 concentration, 15% extract volume percent, for 10 min of sunlight exposure and temperature at 60 o C. Keywords: Green synthesis, Aloe Vera, silver Nanoparticles 1. Introduction In recent years, metallic nanoparticles have a great attention because of the modification of properties perceived due to size effects, distribution and morphology due to present a higher surface-to-volume ratio with decreasing size of nanoparticles, this modifying the catalytic, electronic, and optical properties of the metal NPs (Elizondo et al. 2011; Song & Kim 2008). Silver metal nanoparticles is widely known as particular interest due to unique properties as high conductivity, chemical stability, catalytic and antibacterial (Sharma et al. 2009). Nanoparticles can be synthesized using different methods including chemical, physical, and biological (Iravani et al. 2014). The biological method is a green chemistry method uses naturally occurring reducing agents such as biological microorganism (plants extract, fungus or bacteria) to synthesis nanoparticles (Abou El-Nour et al. 2010). Green synthesis of AgNPs using plant extracts provides advancement over chemical and physical method as it is cost effective, no need to use high energy, environment friendly, and no toxic chemicals (Singhal et al. 2011; Panigrahi 2013). Green silver nanoparticles have been synthesized using various natural products like coffee and tea extract (Nadagouda & Varma 2008) , Hibiscus rosa sinensis leaf (Philip 2010) , Cycas Leaf (Jha & Prasad 2010) , garlic (Allium sativum) extract (Rastogi & Arunachalam 2011) , Pomegranate peel extract (Ahmad et al. 2012) , Aloe Vera plant extract(Chandran et al. 2006). Aloe Vera is a natural plant, which is recognized to have imaginary medicinal reputation known back to thousands of years ago. It contains treasures of nutritional and antipathogenic compounds. Aloe Vera is opted for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles because of the presence of natural phytochemicals which provide natural capping and reducing agents (Yebpella et al. 2011). The aim of this work is to use Aloe Vera leaves extract as low cost and ecofriendly environmental approach to green synthesis silver Nanoparticles (AgNPs). The effect of synthesis parameters such as: Silver ion concentration, Aloe Vera leaves extract concentration, and temperature have been investigated. Also, the effect of electromagnetic radiation (sunlight) on AgNPs synthesis has been studied. The AgNPs have been characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, atomic absorption, AFM and FTIR will be used for characterization.