Sonochemical Mediated Synthesis of Iron Oxide (Fe3O4 and Fe2O3) Nanoparticles and their Characterization, Cytotoxicity and Antibacterial Properties

Abstract

We synthesized the iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) through sonochemical process and analyzed their characteristics and bioactivities. Field emission transmission electron microscopy and particle size analyzer results showed the spherical shaped IONPs with an average size of 8 nm. X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared peaks confirms the formation of IONPs (Fe3O4 and Fe2O3). The IONPs did not induce the cytotoxicity in NIH3T3 but it showed the cytotoxicity in A549 cells with inhibitory concentration (IC50 19.82 µg mL−1). Further, acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining revealed that untreated cells had green nucleus while treated one had many dots of orange color cells as an indication of late apoptotic and necrotic cells. The 2′, 7′-dichlorofluorescein diacetate staining results showed the excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species generation in IONPs treated A549 cells than the untreated cells. Further, the flow cytometer results showed about 2.15% of necrotic cells and 1.68% of apoptotic cells in IONPs treated A549 cells. The IONPs showed antibacterial efficiency on bacterial pathogens with a minimal inhibitory concentration of 0.15 mg mL−1 for Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli. These results are emphasized the bioactive potency of synthesized IONPs for future biomedical applications.