. 2023 Sep 5;14:1227951. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1227951

Table 7.

Advantages and disadvantages of microbial-mediated ZnO-NPs over plant-mediated synthesis.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Clean, non-toxic, environmentally acceptable and easily scaled up for large-scale synthesis. Hydrophilic in nature, highly stable and disperse uniformly in water. Show the biocompatibility properties and have the potential to be used in versatile biomedical applications. Various enzymes, biomolecules and proteins in microbes are used as the capping agents for forming multiple-sized NPs. Demonstrated the capability to act as a natural nano-factory. Microbial synthesis of ZnO-NPs offers an advantage over plants as they can be easily reproduced. Microbes exhibit high metal resistance due to the adsorption of metals and their chelation by intracellular and extracellular proteins.	Isolation and screening of potential microbes and vector construction is time-consuming. Requires highly aseptic conditions and special maintenance. Microbes might lose their ability to synthesize NPs as a consequence of mutations. Isolation of microbes and their culture media enhances the cost-competitive feasibility. The recovery process of ZnO-NPs during intracellular synthesis requires additional steps for microbial cell disruption to get the intracellular ZnO-NPs. The synthesis process involves the use of chemicals for growth media.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Clean, non-toxic, environmentally acceptable and easily scaled up for large-scale synthesis.
Hydrophilic in nature, highly stable and disperse uniformly in water.
Show the biocompatibility properties and have the potential to be used in versatile biomedical applications.
Various enzymes, biomolecules and proteins in microbes are used as the capping agents for forming multiple-sized NPs.
Demonstrated the capability to act as a natural nano-factory.
Microbial synthesis of ZnO-NPs offers an advantage over plants as they can be easily reproduced.
Microbes exhibit high metal resistance due to the adsorption of metals and their chelation by intracellular and extracellular proteins.

Isolation and screening of potential microbes and vector construction is time-consuming.
Requires highly aseptic conditions and special maintenance.
Microbes might lose their ability to synthesize NPs as a consequence of mutations.
Isolation of microbes and their culture media enhances the cost-competitive feasibility.
The recovery process of ZnO-NPs during intracellular synthesis requires additional steps for microbial cell disruption to get the intracellular ZnO-NPs.
The synthesis process involves the use of chemicals for growth media.