Anionic acid functionalized mesoporous γ- Al2O3 nanorods: Preparation, physicochemical and biological characterizations

Abstract

This work reports the anionic acid functionalization of γ-aluminum oxide nanorods (γ-Al 2 O 3 NRs) by a simple and cost effective co-precipitation method. The physicochemical properties of the pure and surface functionalized samples were evaluated by XRD, FTIR, UV–vis DRS, TEM, BET and EPR analysis. The antibacterial as well as the anticancer activities of the samples were examined using well diffusion method and MTT assay process, respectively. The XRD patterns confirmed the high crystalline nature with cubic phase of γ-Al 2 O 3 . Conspicuously, the FTIR spectra indicated the presence of functional derivatives correlated to folic acid and the Al-O stretching. The TEM analysis exhibited the actuality of rod-like morphology of the pure γ-Al 2 O 3 and increased length of the functionalized sample. After the folic acid functionalization, the surface area of the sample was found to be decreased which was determined by BET studies. The average pore diameter values were obtained as 7.9 and 9.4 nm for the pure and surface functionalized samples respectively, evaluated by Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) method. The antibacterial activities of the samples towards both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria were studied which illustrate promising results. Similarly, anticancer activities of the samples were also determined against A549 lung cancer cell lines using MTT assay. Taken as a whole; the surface functionalized γ-Al 2 O 3 NRs demonstrated significant results against bacterial strains and cancer cell line.