Structural, morphological, antimicrobial, and cytotoxicity study of spindle-shaped ZnO submicron particles for potential biomedical applications

Abstract

In the present study, spindle-shaped ZnO submicron particles were synthesized by hydrothermal method. The single-phase X-ray diffraction pattern of ZnO revealed a hexagonal wurtzite structure and the crystallite size of 25 nm was obtained by analyzing x-ray diffraction pattern. The field emission-scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed the spindle-shaped morphology of ZnO powder having a random orientation with 160 nm average particle size. The elemental dispersive spectra and elemental mapping quantize only two elements Zn and O, confirming the ZnO powder. The fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy revealed the existence of ZnO and OH groups in ZnO. The biological studies were performed to investigate the cytotoxic and anti-microbial activities of ZnO submicron particles The spindle-shaped ZnO submicron particles did not alter the viability of human PBMCs reflecting the biocompatible nature of ZnO submicron particles and the material is investigated as generally recognized as safe (GARS). The ZnO particles showed cytotoxicity against human liver cancer (HepG2) and breast cancer (MCF-7) cell lines.These ZnO particles (submicron) also showed significant anti-microbial activity against gram-negative (E. coli) and gram-positive (S. aureus) bacteria. The cumulative data present biocompatible spindle-shaped ZnO particles with anti-microbial and cytotoxic properties, suggesting these submicron particles as a safe candidate for biomedical applications.