Abstract
In the present study, we report the microwave-induced synthesis of fluorescent zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO) and their usage as a cargo material to carry hydrophobic drug, quercetin. TEM and SEM showed the rod-shape morphology of our synthesized ZnO. XRD showed several diffraction peaks correspond to a hexagonal wurtzite structure. The optical and chemical natures of these nanorods were also confirmed from the UV-vis (showed a distinct absorption bands from 361 to 395 nm) and FTIR spectrum (showed absorption band specific to Zn-O stretching). The synthesized ZnO also showed fluorescence emission at around 550 nm when excited under UV irradiation. Quercetin was loaded onto ZnO surface via employing a metal ion-ligand coordination bond, (ZnO/QR), which exhibit pH-sensitive release behavior. ZnO/QR displayed superior drug loading content (42%) and loading efficiency (72.4%). in vitro assays showed that ZnO/QR exhibited higher anticancer, as well as antibacterial activities compared with free quercetin and ZnO. All these results highlight the synthesis of ZnO nanorods under microwave irradiation, which can be used as a plausible therapeutic option for bioimaging and drug delivery purpose.
Highlights
In recent years, the advancement of nanotechnology via designing of functional nanomaterials with novel properties for potential applications in chemical, biological, and technological domains have attracted much attention
From an overnight grown culture, 10 μl of inoculums was added to a fresh culture medium supplemented with different concentrations of either zinc oxide (ZnO) (0–72 μg/ml), QR (0–48 μg/ml) or ZnO/QR (0–120 μg/ml)
The optical nature of synthesized ZnO were analysed from the UV-VIS spectrum, which exhibited characteristic absorption peaks from 361 to 395 nm for the nanoparticles synthesized under microwave irradiation for 1 to 5 min. and was free of impurity peaks (Fig. 3)
Summary
The advancement of nanotechnology via designing of functional nanomaterials with novel properties for potential applications in chemical, biological, and technological domains have attracted much attention. Nanocrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) is a n-type semiconductor having relatively large band gap around 3.37 eV along with high excitation energy of binding (approximately 60 meV) at room temperature [1]. Owing to these noteworthy properties, ZnO is extensively used in several areas, such as thin film transistors [2,3,4], piezoelectric devices [5,6], UV/ozone sensor [7,8,9], dye-sensitized solar cells [10,11] and glucose sensor [12]. We hypothesize that a significant anticancer and antibacterial potency can be achieved by combining the QR and the anti-tumorigenic/antibacterial property of ZnO to synthesis a hybrid (ZnO/QR)
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