Preparation of Fe3O4/SiO2/TiO2/PrVO4 nanocomposite in various molar ratios: Investigation on photocatalytic performance on organic contaminate and bacterial environments, and anti-cancer properties

Abstract

Various SiO2/TiO2 nanoparticles coated on Fe3O4 core and a nanocomposite with PrVO4 were prepared through an ultrasonic-assisted co-precipitation approach. The sample with optimal properties for the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine-B under visible light (around 55 for degradation in 100 min) was chosen, and its photo-antibacterial effects against gam-positive and negative Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538) and Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) under UV�Vis light was evaluated. Also, the cytotoxicity properties on Panc1 cells using the MTT assay studied and its IC50 is about 250 mg/L. Structural, morphological and magnetic characteristics of the nanocomposites were evaluated through XRD, FT-IR, SEM, EDX, MAP, UV�Vis DRS, and VSM tests. The crystalline size of Fe3O4/SiO2/TiO2 nanoparticles and Fe3O4/SiO2/TiO2/PrVO4 were determined to be in the range of 55�75 nm, and 80�100 nm respectively, through SEM tests. XRD results indicated that the nanocomposites were pure and VSM analyses proved that the saturation magnetization of the sample is adequate for its applications. © 2020 Elsevier Lt