Synthesis, characterization and in vitro cytotoxicity study of calcium ferrite nanoparticles

In the present paper, calcium ferrite nanoparticles have been synthesized by the sol-gel method. The orthorhombic structure of calcium ferrite nanoparticles has been revealed by X-ray diffractometry. The morphology and size (5-10 nm) of the synthesized nanoparticles have been observed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis have been studied, in order to ensure absence of impurities. The magnetic analysis has been studied by vibrating sample magnetometer, where the superparamagnetic behavior with saturation magnetization of 36.4 emu/g was observed. In vitro cytotoxicity test on T cell lines (Jurkat cells) using MTT (3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, a tetrazole) assay revealed the biocompatibility of the synthesized calcium ferrite nanoparticles at particle concentration below 250 µg/ml.