Antibacterial and antifungal activity of novel synthesized neodymium-substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles for biomedical application

Abstract

Neodymium (Nd)-substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles (NPs), i.e., CoNdxFe2-xO4 (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2) NPs, were synthesized by the sonochemical method. The compositional characterization was done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Antistaphylococcal activity was found to be enhanced, i.e., survival rate was 50%, 45%, 40%, and 30% with the increase in the ratio of Nd (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2),whereas anticandidal activitywas found efficient, i.e., 9%, 20%, 22%, and 40%survival rate at all the four ratios. The morphogenesis studies indicated that the synthesized metal-ligand, improves the antimicrobial capacity by binding them strongly to the microbial walls. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report which demonstrates the series of CoNdxFe2-xO4 (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2) NPs being active towards Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans and encourages its potential candidature for pharmaceutical and biomedical purposes.