Silver nanoparticle formation from galvanic waste water using filamentous fungi

Galvanic wastewater contains enormously elevated concentrations of heavy metal ions, which makes its disposal time-consuming and cost-intensive. However, it has been shown that filamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus are able to reduce dissolved heavy metal ions such as silver to nanoparticles by secreting exoenzymes. Thus, these could be used for the biological detoxification of wastewater - furthermore, silver nanoparticles, for example, are of great interest for various fields of industry due to their unique properties. In the course of this project, the mechanism of metal reduction by filamentous fungi will be investigated in more detail.