A novel biomaterial — Fe3O4:TiO2 core-shell nano particle with magnetic performance and high visible light photocatalytic activity

Aiming at some disadvantages of TiO2 nano particle (TiO2 NP), this paper successfully prepared Fe3O4:TiO2 core-shell nano particle (Fe3O4:TiO2 core-shell NP) using homogeneous precipitation method. The prepared Fe3O4:TiO2 core-shell NP was characterized using XRD, TEM, UV–vis DRS, FT-IR, and VSM, respectively; the results show that Fe3O4:TiO2 core-shell NP is single dispersed with the diameter of 20 nm on average. In contrast to the traditional TiO2 NP, Fe3O4:TiO2 core-shell NP generates red shift, and has higher absorption in visible region and greater photocatalytic activity, plus additional superparamagetism. In order to demonstrate the benefits of Fe3O4:TiO2 core-shell NP, we adopted Hela cells as a model to investigate the killing efficiency. The results show that Fe3O4:TiO2 core-shell NP is non-toxic, and much more efficient than traditional TiO2 NP combined with extra magnetic field. This shows that Fe3O4:TiO2 core-shell NP is a novel biomaterial with magnetic performance and high visible light photocatalytic activity. It would be a promising candidate in the field of malignant tumor therapy in future.