TiO2@ZnO nanocomposites decorated with gold nanoparticles: Synthesis, characterization and their antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities

Abstract Nanocomposite synthesis is of great interest because of their wide variety of applications in various industries. In the current investigation, the nano-sized composites of TiO2 and ZnO (TiO2@ZnO) were prepared. The prepared TiO2@ZnO nanocomposites were modified by decorating gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) (TiO2@ZnO–Au) using a hydrothermal method. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) characterized the TiO2@ZnO – Au nanocomposites. The nanomaterial group study was carried out with FT-IR spectroscopy. Then, the synthesized TiO2@ZnO–Au nanocomposites were studied for their biological applications including antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities. Interestingly, TiO2@ZnO-Au nanocomposites exhibited significant antimicrobial activity towards Escherichia- coli (MTCC 25922), Staphylococcus - aureus (MTCC 25923), and Candida- albicans (MTCC 282) by in vitro process. Besides, the nanocomposites represented remarkable anti-inflammatory activity using in vitro assays including albumin denaturation inhibitory assay, proteinase inhibitory assay, and heat induced hemolysis assay. Moreover, the prepared TiO2@ZnO–Au nanocomposites exhibited significant anticancer activity towards MCF 7 cells use an IC -50 value of 59.45 μg / mL through in vitro cytotoxicity assay using MTT assay. Future studies are required to show the effective biological activity of TiO2@ZnO–Au nanocomposites through in vitro model.