Two-Step Hydrothermal Synthesis of Bifunctional Hematite-Silver Heterodimer Nanoparticles for Potential Antibacterial and Anticancer Applications

摘要

In recent years, the development of composite nanostructures containing noble metal and magnetic nanocrystals has attracted much interest because they offer a promising avenue for multifunctional applications in nanomedicine and pharmacotherapy. In this work, we present a facile two-step hydrothermal approach for the synthesis of bifunctional heterodimer nanoparticles (HDNPs) composed of hematite nanocubes (alpha-Fe2O3 NCs) and silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs). The formation and magnetic property of alpha-Fe2O3-Ag HDNPs was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometer. Interestingly, the hydrothermal-synthesized alpha-Fe2O3-Ag HDNPs were found to display significant antibacterial activity against three types of infectious bacteria. The cytotoxicity of alpha-Fe2O3-Ag nanocomposite against lung cancer A549 cell line was investigated and compared with that of pure alpha-Fe2O3 NCs and Ag-NPs. The obtained results reveal that the alpha-Fe2O3-Ag nanocomposite exhibited higher anticancer performance than that of pure Ag-NPs, whereas pure alpha-Fe2O3 NCs were not cytotoxic to the tested cells. The inhibitory concentration (IC50) of the alpha-Fe2O3-Ag nanocomposite was found at 20.94 mu g/mL. With the aforementioned properties, alpha-Fe2O3-Ag HDNPs showed a high potential as a multifunctional material for advanced biomedicine and nanotherapy applications.