Bioharvesting and improvement of nano-silica yield from bagasse by irradiated Curvularia spicifera

According to screening experiments, the selected promising fungal isolate was identified as Curvularia spicifera AUMC 15532. The SNPs fabrication was significantly enhanced by gamma irradiation (optimal dose 750 Gy) and response surface methodology for the first time. The attained SNps' size ranged from 30.6-130.4 nm depending on the biotransformation conditions employed in the statistical model, which is available for numerous applications. The XRD shows the amorphous nature of the fabricated SNPs, whereas the FTIR analysis revealed the three characteristic bands of SNPs. The outcomes of the response surface optimization demonstrated that the model exhibited an adequate degree of precision, as evidenced by the higher R² value (0.9511) and adjusted R² value (0.8940), which confirmed the model's close correspondence with the experimental data. A gamma irradiation dose of 750 Gy was optimal for a significant increase in the silica bioleaching activity by C. spicifera fermented bagasse (71.4% increase compared to the non-irradiated strain).