Fabrication of α-FeO Nanostructures: Synthesis, Characterization, and Their Promising Application in the Treatment of Carcinoma A549 Lung Cancer Cells.

In the present work, iron nanoparticles were synthesized in the α-FeO phase with the reduction of potassium hexachloroferrate(III) by using l-ascorbic acid as a reducing agent in the presence of an amphiphilic non-ionic polyethylene glycol surfactant in an aqueous solution. The synthesized α-FeO NPs were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry. The powder X-ray diffraction analysis result confirmed the formation of α-FeO NPs, and the average crystallite size was found to be 45 nm. The other morphological studies suggested that α-FeO NPs were predominantly spherical in shape with a diameter ranges from 40 to 60 nm. The dynamic light scattering analysis revealed the zeta potential of α-FeO NPs as -28 ± 18 mV at maximum stability. The ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry analysis shows an absorption peak at 394 nm, which is attributed to their surface plasmon vibration. The cytotoxicity test of synthesized α-FeO NPs was investigated against human carcinoma A549 lung cancer cells, and the biological adaptability exhibited by α-FeO NPs has opened a pathway to biomedical applications in the drug delivery system. Our investigation confirmed that l-ascorbic acid-coated α-FeO NPs with calculated IC ≤ 30 μg/mL are the best suited as an anticancer agent, showing the promising application in the treatment of carcinoma A549 lung cancer cells.