Facile synthesis and characterization of W-doped TiO2 nanoparticles: Promising ancticancer activity with high selectivity

Abstract In this research work, the effect of tungsten (W) doping on the crystal structure, morphology and anticancer activity of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were studied. The synthesized W doped TiO2 nanoparticles have been characterized by spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. XRD pattern of pure TiO2 and 1 wt% W-doped TiO2 nanoparticles confirms the anatase structure and increase in the W-doping changes the phase of TiO2 to rutile. The images of HRTEM clearly confirm that size of 5 wt% W-doped TiO2 nanoparticles are in the range of ~ 40 nm. The FESEM images show the agglomerated spherical-like morphology for pure TiO2, 1 wt%, 3 wt% W-doped TiO2 nanoparticles and flower like morphology for 5 wt% W-doped TiO2 nanoparticles. Both pure TiO2 and W-doped TiO2 nanoparticles did not show any notable cytotoxicity against human normal embryonic kidney cell line (HEK 293), but showed effective cytotoxicity against HeLa cancer cell lines evaluated by MTT assay.