Capping agent-induced variation of physicochemical and biological properties of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles

Capping agents play a vital role in controlling the size, morphology, and monodispersity of nanoparticles. To understand a comprehensive overview of the influence of capping on the structure and properties of hematite nanoparticles (HNPs), we have synthesized hematite nanoparticles (HNPs) with narrow size distribution by an economic co-precipitation method using capping agents like sodium citrate, Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone (PVP) and starch. A comparative in-depth study of structure, morphology, and surface analysis along with thermal, optical, magnetic and electrochemical properties of synthesized capped and uncapped HNPs has been performed. The effect of capping agents on photocatalytic and antioxidant activities along with cytotoxicity of all fabricated nanoparticles was studied against MDA-MB-231 cell line causing breast cancer along with flow cytometry. Results revealed a definite improvement in grain size, crystallinity, optical, thermal and magnetic properties of HNPs is due to efficient capping. PVP has reduced the maximum of crystalline size up to 23% of HNPs and removed 98.80% of dye from wastewater among all capping agents. Our findings also suggest that PVP capped HNPs proved to be cytotoxic to the cancer cell line. Taken together, our studies will be helpful to understand the role of capping agents in determining properties of HNPs that can further help in designing engineer HNPs. [Display omitted] •Hematite nanoparticles (HNPs) were successfully capped using Starch, PVP and citrate as capping agent.•Variation in structural, Physiochemical and biological properties due to different capping agents were analyzed.•Cytotoxic Potential of all the nanoparticles was assessed against MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line.•Significant variation of properties in hematite nanoparticle was observed due to capping.