Magnetic properties,anticancer and antibacterial effectiveness of sonochemically produced Ce3+/Dy3+ co-activated Mn-Zn nanospinel ferrites

Some new types of Ce³⁺ and Dy³⁺ co-doped manganese-zinc nanospinel ferrites (CDMZNSFs) of the form (Mn_0.5Zn_0.5)Fe_2-2xCe_xDy_x]O₄ (with 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) were sonochemically produced and characterized. The structure, morphology, optical and magnetic properties of these NSFs were determined as a function of co-dopant (Ce³⁺ and Dy³⁺) contents. The direct optical band gap energies of the studied NSFs were ranged from 1.54 to 1.85 eV. The measurements of magnetization versus magnetic field of the prepared NSFs disclosed a superparamagnetic (SPM) behavior at room temperature (RT). The measurements of temperature-dependent magnetizations revealed a transition from superparamagnetic (SPM) state above blocking temperature T_B to a ferromagnetic (FM) state below T_B. The saturation magnetization and T_B decreased with the increase in co-dopant contents. In addition, the bactericidal (on the gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains) and anti-cancerous effectiveness of these NSFs were assessed. The cancer cells' growth inhibitory action of these NSFs was tested against both normal (HEK-293) and cancerous (HCT-116) human cells. After 48 h of treatment of the cancerous cells with the NSFs, their population was significantly dropped as shown by the MTT assay, indicating the selective inhibition of the cancer cells growth by the proposed NSFs. Conversely, the non-cancerous cells (HEK-293) population remained unaffected. The IC₅₀ values of the NSFs-treated cancerous cells (HCT-116) were in the range of 0.74–2.35 µg/mL. The results of the MIC and MBC assays revealed the reasonable antibacterial efficacy (growth inhibitory activity) of these NSFs when tested against the E. coli and S. aureus bacterial strains. It is established that the proposed Ce³⁺/Dy³⁺ co-activated CDMZNSFs may be beneficial for the anti-cancerous and bactericidal applications.