Hydrothermal synthesis of carbon dots incorporated in magnetite iron oxide nanoparticles for potential targeted brain cancer therapy: In-Vitro study

Abstract

Surface modification of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NPs) using carbon dots (CDs) is a promising approach in biomedical applications due to excellent biocompatibility. Herein, the CDs were incorporated in the Fe3O4 NPs to observe the performance of CDs-Fe3O4 NPs for targeted brain cancer therapy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed the morphology of Fe3O4 NPs is rough and agglomerated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) diffraction pattern exhibits that the CDs are successfully incorporated in Fe3O4 NPs. Furthermore, magnetic properties evaluated using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) exhibited significant magnetization (51.362 emu/g) attributed to the greater occupancy of Fe+2 ions in the crystal lattice. XRD pattern confirmed the formation of NPs. Furthermore, functional groups of the NPs were validated through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The measurement of zeta potential affirmed the stability of the as-prepared Fe3O4 NPs, CDs, and CDs-Fe3O4 NPs, indicating a value of −7.64 mV, −0.5754 mV and −3.881 mV, respectively. Fe3O4 NPs exhibited a surface area of 58.6 m2/g as determined by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. The anticancer activity of the synthesized CDs-Fe3O4 NPs demonstrated inhibition against MG-U87 cells. Therefore, the synthesized CDs-Fe3O4 NPs hold potential for application in brain cancer therapy. In addition, CDs-Fe3O4 NPs exhibited exceptional biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity against osteoblast cells, establishing them as a safe biomaterial for biomedical applications.