Designing of Co0.5Ni0.5GaxFe2-xO4 (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) Microspheres via Hydrothermal Approach and Their Selective Inhibition on the Growth of Cancerous and Fungal Cells

Advances of Cobalt Nanomaterials as Anti-Infection Agents, Drug Carriers, and Immunomodulators for Potential Infectious Disease Treatment

Infectious diseases remain the most serious public health issue, which requires the development of more effective strategies for infectious control. As a kind of ultra-trace element, cobalt is essential to the metabolism of different organisms. In recent decades, nanotechnology has attracted increasing attention worldwide due to its wide application in different areas, including medicine. Based on the important biological roles of cobalt, cobalt nanomaterials have recently been widely developed for their attractive biomedical applications. With advantages such as low costs in preparation, hypotoxicity, photothermal conversion abilities, and high drug loading ability, cobalt nanomaterials have been proven to show promising potential in anticancer and anti-infection treatment. In this review, we summarize the characters of cobalt nanomaterials, followed by the advances in their biological functions and mechanisms. More importantly, we emphatically discuss the potential of cobalt nanomaterials as anti-infectious agents, drug carriers, and immunomodulators for anti-infection treatments, which might be helpful to facilitate progress in future research of anti-infection therapy.

Structural and Magnetic Properties of Co0.5Ni0.5Ga0.01Gd0.01Fe1.98O4/ZnFe2O4 Spinel Ferrite Nanocomposites: Comparative Study between Sol-Gel and Pulsed Laser Ablation in Liquid Approaches

In this study, the samples of the ZnFe₂O₄ (ZFO) spinel ferrites nanoparticles (SFNPs), Co_0.5Ni_0.5Ga_0.01Gd_0.01Fe_1.98O₄ (CNGaGdFO) SFNPs and (Co_0.5Ni_0.5Ga_0.01Gd_0.01Fe_1.98O₄)_x/(ZnFe₂O₄)_y (x:y = 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:1, 3:1 and 4:1) (CNGaGdFO)_x/(ZFO)_y spinel ferrite nanocomposites (NC) have been synthesized by both sol-gel and Green pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) approaches. All products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning and transmission electron microscopies (SEM and TEM), elemental mappings and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). It was objected to tune the magnetic properties of a soft spinel ferrite material with a softer one by mixing them with different fractions. Some key findings are as follows. M-H investigations revealed the exhibition of ferrimagnetic phases for all synthesized samples (except ZnFe₂O₄) that were synthesized by sol-gel or PLAL methods at both 300 K and 10 K. ZnFe₂O₄ ferrite NPs exhibits almost paramagnetic feature at 300 K and glass-like phase at very low temperatures below 19.23 K. At RT analyses, maximum saturation magnetization (M_S) of 66.53 emu/g belongs to nanocomposite samples that was synthesized by sol-gel method and x:y ratio of 1:3. At 10 K analyses, M_S,_max = 118.71 emu/g belongs to same nanocomposite samples with ratio of 1:3. Maximum coercivities are 625 Oe belonging to CNGaGdFO and 3564 Oe belonging to NC sample that was obtained by sol-gel route having the 3:1 ratio. Squareness ratio (SQRs = M_r/M_S) of NC sample (sol-gel, 4:1 ratio) is 0.371 as maximum and other samples have much lower values until a minimum of 0.121 (laser, 3:1) assign the multi-domain wall structure for all samples at 300 K. At 10 K data, just CNGaGdFO has 0.495 SQR value assigning single domain nature. The maximum values of effective crystal anisotropy constant (K_eff) are 5.92 × 10⁴ Erg/g and 2.4 × 10⁵ Erg/g belonging to CNGaGdFO at 300 K and 10 K, respectively. Further, this sample has an internal anisotropy field H_a of 1953 Oe as largest at 300 K. At 10 K another sample (sol-gel, 3:1 ratio) has H_a,max of 11138 Oe which can also be classified as a soft magnetic material similar to other samples. Briefly, most magnetic parameters of NCs that were synthesized by sol-gel route are stronger than magnetic parameters of the NCs that were synthesized by PLAL at both temperatures. Some NC samples were observed to have stronger magnetic data as compared to magnetic parameters of Co_0.5Ni_0.5Ga_0.01Gd_0.01Fe_1.98O₄ NPs at 10 K.