Study the biological effect of nanosize ferric oxides prepared from low cost organic materials against human breast cancer cells

The aim of this paper is to fully exploit the medical potential of α‑Fe2O3 as a promising material for anticancer agent. Herein, Fe2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized using thermal decomposition method for the iron(III) Schiff base (N,N′‑disalicylidene‑l,2‑phenylenediamine (H2dsp), N,N′‑disalicylidene‑3,4‑diaminotoluene (H2dst), 4‑nitro‑N,N′‑disalicylidene‑1,2‑phenylenediamine (H2ndsp) and N,N′‑disalicylidene ethylenediamine (H2salen)) complexes as precursors. The calcined of Fe2O3 NPs were comprehensively characterized based on UV-Vis, FT-IR, SEM, TEM and XRD. The band gap energy of the synthesized α‑Fe2O3 NPs particles are 1.75-1.92 eV range. Evaluation of cytotoxicity against human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) for the synthesized α‑Fe2O3 hematite nanoparticles was performed.