Synthesis, structural and optical properties, ferromagnetic behaviour, cytotoxicity and NLO activity of lithium sulphate doped l-threonine

Lithium Sulphate doped l-threonine (Li2SO4-LT), a semi-organic crystal, has been synthesised and grown by slow evaporation technique at room temperature. The grown crystal was subjected to single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis in order to establish their crystalline nature. Li2SO4-LT crystal belongs to the orthorhombic crystal system (a=7.66 Å, b=5.11 Å, c=13.60 Å) with space group P212121. Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) study was carried out to quantify the concentration of lithium element in the grown crystal. The results show that 0.07 mol of lithium sulphate has been incorporated into the parent system. The grown material has been found to possess wide transparency in the range 240-1100 nm with lower cut-off wavelength at 240 nm. The optical band gap was calculated as 4.92 eV using optical absorption spectrum and Tauc's relation. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic study was performed to identify the functional groups present in the grown crystal. The surface features of the grown crystal were analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis. The magnetic property was studied with the help of Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM). The coercivity and retentivity of the material were measured from the hysteresis curve as 550.06 G and 79.50×10−6 emu respectively. 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay method was performed to understand the cytotoxicity or anticancer activity of the sample. The cell viability and cytotoxicity of the sample against MCF-7 cells were estimated as 49.41% and 50.59% respectively at a concentration of 250 μg. The second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency was measured by the Kurtz powder technique using Nd:YAG laser and was found to be 1.46 times that of standard potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP).