Biosynthesis of Metal Nanoparticles: Novel Efficient Heterogeneous Nanocatalysts

This review compiles the most recent advances described in literature on the preparation of noble metal nanoparticles induced by biological entities. The use of different free or substituted carbohydrates, peptides, proteins, microorganisms or plants have been successfully applied as a new green concept in the development of innovative strategies to prepare these nanoparticles as different nanostructures with different forms and sizes. As a second part of this review, the application of their synthetic ability as new heterogonous catalysts has been described in C–C bond-forming reactions (as Suzuki, Heck, cycloaddition or multicomponent), oxidations and dynamic kinetic resolutions.This work was supported by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The author thanks the Ramon Areces Foundation for financial support. M.F also thanks the MINECO for the research grant SAF2014-59118-JIN (Programa Estatal de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad 2014: “Proyectos de I+D+i para jóvenes investigadores”), and co-funding by Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER).We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI)