Biosynthesis, Magnetic and Cytotoxic Studies of Hematite Nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles are special nanoparticles used in the biomedical applications such as magnetic separation, drug delivery and magnetic resonance imaging enhancement. They are non-toxic and have high chemical stability. In the present study, alpha-Fe2O3 nanoparticles (Hematite) were biosynthesized using the Salvadora persica aqueous extract. The structures and morphological properties of the synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by PXRD, FESEM, EDX, VSM, Raman and FTIR analysis. The results showed that, the produced nanoparticles are spherical in shape and uniform with particles size about 15-20 nm. The purity of the synthesized nanoparticles was found to be high, such that they were specified well in EDX graph. The saturated magnetism (M-s) of the synthesized alpha-Fe2O3 nanoparticles was equal to 1.8 emu/g, which is higher than the commercial alpha-Fe2O3-NPs. This result showed superparamagnetic properties of the synthesized nanoparticles. Cytotoxic activity of these nanoparticles was applied against colon (HT-29) cancer cell lines. Results showed no cytotoxic activity at concentrations lower than 125 mu g/mL. Therefore, it can be concluded that, the synthesized nanoparticles can be used in the biomedical applications.