RF induction heating and in-vitro study of citrate functionalized Zr-substituted Fe3O4 nanoparticles with human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cell

Abstract

We present a study on biocompatibility of citrate capped ZrxFe3-xO4 based magnetic ferrofluids with human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cell, evaluated by Sulforhodamine B assay. It was found to be ~86% at a concentration of 1.5 mg/mL after 48 h. We approached single step and cost effective polyol methodology to get a well dispersed and homogeneous aqueous suspension of citric acid coated ZrxFe3-xO4, (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.3) MNPS. We used citric acid which anchored over the surface of freshly prepared nanoparticles to provide stability for longer duration. The X-ray and electron diffractions suggested the formation of single phasic magnetite particles of size 5–18 nm. The aggregation of MNPS was prevented by citric acid which was confirmed from Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectra. The Zeta potential measurement inferred the well dispersion of nanoparticles at varying pH values (2−10). The Zr-substituted magnetite had relatively lower magnetization values than pure one. The optimum specific absorption rate (SAR) value at a field of 23 mT, 261 kHz was obtained to be 44 W/g for the sample x = 0.02 at a concentration of 10 mg/mL. In contrast, the intrinsic loss power (ILP) value was optimum (0.54 nHm2/kg) for Fe3O4 ferrofluid having a concentration of 5 mg/mL and at a field of 17 mT, 170 kHz. Nevertheless, the reported ferrofluids have displayed high heating capacity and suitable biocompatibility thus these could be used as promising materials for bioapplications including magnetic hyperthermia. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.