Enhanced Biocompatibility and Multifunctional Properties of Iron-Doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles for Applications

Abstract Nanoparticles' enhanced biocompatibility and multifunctional properties for medical applications, including advanced drug delivery systems, nanotheranostics, in vivo imaging, and electronic device fabrication, have attracted considerable interest. ZnO and iron-doped ZnO (Fe:ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized using the wet-chemical process. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis illustrates that the crystallite dimension of these nanoparticles decreased as iron (Fe) concentration increased up to 20 wt%. The crystallite dimension reduced from 89.63 nm to 70.47 nm as the iron content grew, and then it continued to increase as the iron proportion increased. The particle size of these nanoparticles was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and determined to be between 80 nm and 110 nm. The functional group of active Fe:ZnO samples shows the FT-IR peaks at approximately 399 cm − 1 , 750 cm − 1 , between 3500 cm − 1 and 3600 cm − 1, and 1420 cm − 1 ascribed to the Zn-O, -CH 2 -NH 2 , -OH, and -CO vibrations, respectively. Whereas the peaks at 2860 cm − 1 and 2925 cm − 1 were attributed to the -CH 3 and -CH 2 stretching vibrations, respectively. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) was also used to determine the hydrodynamic diameter of ZnO and Fe:ZnO NPs. Zeta potential values for ZnO, Fe10%:ZnO, Fe20%:ZnO, and Fe30%:ZnO were 0.2 mV, 0.4 mV, 0.6 mV, and 0.9 mV, respectively. All samples exhibited strong absorption peaks at 350 nm in the UV region. The band gap energy of Fe:ZnO decreased as the Fe concentration increased. The band gap energies calculated using UV-Vis data were at about 3.06 eV, 2.92 eV, 2.82 eV, and 2.78 eV for ZnO, Fe10%:ZnO, Fe20%:ZnO, and Fe30%:ZnO, respectively. The outcomes of the research may have potential applications in semiconductor device fabrication, including spintronics and nanomedicine.