Facile synthesis of bovine serum albumin conjugated low-dimensional ZnS nanocrystals

We present a facile synthesis of bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugated low-dimensional ZnS nanocrystals. The experimental parameters such as effects of BSA concentration and precursor vol ratios of Zn:S on the formation of ZnS nanoparticles in BSA matrix were investigated. The ZnS crystalline sizes of 1.9, 1.8 and 1.6 nm were obtained by using the BSA concentrations of 1 × 10−4, 5 × 10−4 and 10 × 10−4 g/mL, respectively, with a fixed Zn:S vol ratio of 1:1. The ZnS samples prepared from 1:10 and 10:1 vol ratios of Zn:S at BSA concentration of 5 × 10−4 g/mL shows the crystalline sizes of ZnS are 2.1 and 1.5 nm, respectively. FT−IR analysis suggests that the prepared ZnS nanoparticles might be conjugated through the interactions of hydroxyl and amine groups present in BSA. We evaluate the cytotoxicity of the prepared ZnS nanoparticles, the THP-1 cells showed a good viability (>88%) for all the prepared ZnS samples. The plausible mechanism for the formation of ZnS-BSA composite has also been discussed.