Study on Functionalization and Cytotoxicity of Calcium and Potassium Ferrite Nanoparticles

Abstract

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been comprehensively scrutinized for biomedical applications, where the quintessential requirements are that the particles must be nanosized, superparamagnetic and biocompatible. Going through the literature, one can observe that ferrites of Ni, Mn, Co, Zn have been investigated for various biomedical applications such as drug delivery, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and hyperthermia. Although they exhibit superior magnetic properties, their inherent toxicity elevates concerns on their use in biomedical applications and reduces their efficacy. Ferrites of calcium and potassium are expected to more biocompatible since both these elements are inherently non-toxic. In addition to the above mentioned requisites, another factor that decides the effectiveness of MNPs is their ability to covalently bond to biological entities and agglomeration. These two factors decide the fate of MNPs and become the cause for inhibition of the specific property or application for which it was employed. Thus, making it indispensable to functionalize/coat the surface of MNPs with appropriate functional groups or stabilizers. The most widely employed stabilizers among organic polymers and inorganic material is polyethylene glycol (PEG) and silica, respectively. These have been used as the stabilizers in the present thesis. In a nutshell, the present thesis attempts to introduce calcium ferrite nanoparticles and potassium ferrite nanoparticles along with their respective nanocomposites as novel, superparamagnetic and biocompatible materials for biomedical applications. Altogether, six combinations (bare CaFe2O4 NPs, PEG/CaFe2O4 NPs, silica/CaFe2O4 NPs, bare KFeO2 NPs, PEG/KFeO2 NPs, silica/KFeO2 NPs) have been studied. Their structural, morphological, compositional and magnetic analyses have been done by X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), Scanning electron microscope/Transmission electron microscope (SEM/TEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDAX) and Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), respectively. Thermal (TGA/DTA) as well as FTIR analyses have also been carried out. In vitro cytotoxicity test on T cell lines (Jurkat cells), using 3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay have been performed in order to investigate their dose-dependent cytotoxicity.