Green Ultrasound-Assisted Synthesis of Surface-Decorated Nanoparticles of Fe₃O₄ with Au and Ag: Study of the Antifungal and Antibacterial Activity

Abstract

This work proposes a sonochemical biosynthesis of magnetoplasmonic nanostructures of Fe3O4 decorated with Au and Ag. The magnetoplasmonic systems, such as Fe3O4 and Fe3O4-Ag, were characterized structurally and magnetically. The structural characterizations reveal the magnetite structures as the primary phase. Noble metals, such as Au and Ag, are present in the sample, resulting in a structure-decorated type. The magnetic measurements indicate the superparamagnetic behavior of the Fe3O4-Ag and Fe3O4-Au nanostructures. The characterizations were carried out by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Complementarily, antibacterial and antifungal assays were carried out to evaluate the potential properties and future applications in biomedicine.

Keywords

• magnetic nanoparticles
• magnetoplasmonic
• antibacterial
• antifungal
• green synthesis
• sonochemistry