Zinc selenide nanoparticles (ZnSe-NPs): Green synthesis and investigation of their cytotoxicity effects

Mono-dispersed crystalline Zinc selenide nanoparticles (ZnSe-NPs) have been synthesized at ambient temperature conditions via a “green” chemistry method. The nanoparticles were characterized by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV–vis spectrophotometry. In vitro cytotoxicity studies on Neuro2A and HeLa cell lines illustrated a dose dependent toxicity with non-toxic effect of ZnSe-NPs up to a concentration of 3.9 and 7.8 µg/mL, respectively. The influencing reaction time was also investigated, and the possible formation mechanism was also proposed. The suggested method is facile, green, easy, and it can be employed to large-scale fabrication.