Fabrication and a detailed study of antibacterial properties of α-Fe2O3/NiO nanocomposites along with their structural, optical, thermal, magnetic and cytotoxic features

Nanomaterials have specific properties which are uncommon in their bulk counterparts. Because of these unique characteristics, nanotechnology has been explored for various applications by the scientific community and it can play a crucial role in providing solutions of current major healthcare problems. In the present work, we describe the fabrication of a novel inorganic alternative of traditional antibiotics, which can effectively counter the pathogenic bacteria including multi drug resistant bacterial strains. For this purpose, nanocomposites of Fe/Ni oxide with different molar concentrations of nickel have been prepared via wet-chemical approach along with the alpha-Fe2O3 and NiO nanoparticles. The bactericidal efficiency of the prepared samples were tested against pathogenic strains of B. subtilis, S. aureus, E. coli and S. typhi using two distinct methods. In addition to this, structural, physical and chemical properties of the nanomaterials were studied using XRD, TEM, EDAX, Raman, VSM and TGA-DTA. Also, the cytotoxicity of synthesized samples was assessed using MTT assay against human cell lines MCF-10A (normal) and MCF7 (cancer).