Differential cytotoxicity of ferromagnetic Co doped CeO2 nanoparticles against human neuroblastoma cancer cells

Abstract Rare-earth metal oxide (REMO) nanoparticles play a major role in emerging technologies related to magnetic and biomedical applications. The physical characteristics and bioactivity of REMO nanoparticles is significantly dependant on the particle size, type and level of dopants and defects. In the present work, undoped and Co doped CeO 2 nanoparticles have been prepared by facile, cost effective and easily reproducible chemical co-precipitation technique. The structural investigations reveal the formation of single phase cubic fluorite structure of CeO 2 for undoped and doped samples. Morphological examinations demonstrate the formation of highly homogeneous nanoparticles with average particle size in the range of 8–20 nm. The specific surface area (SSA) is observed to be 234 m 2 /g for undoped CeO 2 and is found to be enhanced remarkably as function of Co doping level. Raman spectroscopy results depict the presence of oxygen vacancies (V o ) defects in undoped CeO 2 nanoparticles which are found to be further enhanced in host matrix as function of cationic doping. The optical and dielectric properties of CeO 2 nanoparticles are significantly tailored via dopant impurity induced defects such as abundance of V o . It can be established that these defects (V o ) play a vital role in the activation of room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) in both undoped and Co doped CeO 2 nanoparticles which may arise from exchange interactions. It is interesting observed that these synthesized nanoparticles have very significant differential cytotoxicity towards healthy and human Neuroblastoma cancerous cells. These magnetic nanoparticles with tuned physical properties are highly potential for the future targeted cancer therapy and diagnostic.