A facile route for the synthesis of Co, Ni and Cu metallic nanoparticles with potential antimicrobial activity using novel metallosurfactants

Abstract

The work deals with optimizing a methodology for fabrication of monodisperse metallic nanoparticles (active against microbes) using micellar core of amine based metallosurfactant. Novel double chained amine metallosurfactants of the type [M(C12H25NH2)2] (where M is copper, nickel and cobalt) have been synthesized and characterized with elemental analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Further, study of theaggregated structures (i.e. bilayer) of these lipophilic metallosurfactants in various alcohols has been carried out. Thermodynamics parameters of reverse micellization have also been estimated. The process of micellization is spontaneous and entropy driven. Prepared metallosurfactants have been utilized as precursors for the fabrication of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) of Co, Ni and Cu. The method is validated for all the three studied transition metals for the preparation of metallic nanoparticles. This approach offers better results in terms of size, shape, morphology, distribution and stability of NPs. Characterization of NPs is done by UV–vis, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Emission Microscopy (TEM) and Dynamic light scattering (DLS). Prepared metallosurfactants and NPs have been trialled for antimicrobial activity against three pathogenic microbes viz. Bacillus Cereus (gram +ve bacterium), Klebsiella Pneumoniae (gram −ve bacterium) and Curvularia lunata (fungus) and best results are shown by Cu NPs. Furthermore, interaction of metallic NPs with bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been estimated.