Biogenic Synthesis of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Using Enterococcus faecalis: Adsorption of Hexavalent Chromium from Aqueous Solution and In Vitro Cytotoxicity Analysis

Melvin S Samuel; Saptashwa Datta; Narendhar Chandrasekar; Ramachandran Balaji; Ethiraj Selvarajan; Srikanth Vuppala

doi:10.3390/nano11123290

Biogenic Synthesis of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Using Enterococcus faecalis: Adsorption of Hexavalent Chromium from Aqueous Solution and In Vitro Cytotoxicity Analysis

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2021 Dec 3;11(12):3290. doi: 10.3390/nano11123290.

Authors

Melvin S Samuel¹, Saptashwa Datta², Narendhar Chandrasekar³, Ramachandran Balaji⁴, Ethiraj Selvarajan², Srikanth Vuppala⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 21302, West Bengal, India.
² Department of Genetic Engineering, School of Bioengineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Chennai 603203, Tamil Nadu, India.
³ Department of Nanoscience and Technology, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore 641022, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 3220133 Milan, Italy.

Abstract

The biological synthesis of nanoparticles is emerging as a potential method for nanoparticle synthesis due to its non-toxicity and simplicity. In the present study, a bacterium resistant to heavy metals was isolated from a metal-contaminated site and we aimed to report the synthesis of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles via co-precipitation using bacterial exopolysaccharides (EPS) derived from Enterococcus faecalis_RMSN6 strains. A three-variable Box-Behnken design was used for determining the optimal conditions of the Fe₃O₄ NPs synthesis process. The synthesized Fe₃O₄ NPs were thoroughly characterized through multiple analytical techniques such as XRD, UV-Visible spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy and finally SEM analysis to understand the surface morphology. Fe₃O₄ NPs were then probed for the Cr(VI) ion adsorption studies. The important parameters such as optimization of initial concentration of Cr(VI) ions, effects of contact time, pH of the solution and contact time on quantity of Cr(VI) adsorbed were studied in detail. The maximum adsorption capacity of the nanoparticles was found to be 98.03 mg/g. The nanoparticles could retain up to 73% of their efficiency of chromium removal for up to 5 cycles. Additionally, prepared Fe₃O₄ NPs in the concentration were subjected to cytotoxicity studies using an MTT assay. The investigations using Fe₃O₄ NPs displayed a substantial dose-dependent effect on the A594 cells. The research elucidates that the Fe₃O₄ NPs synthesized from EPS of E. faecalis_RMSN6 can be used for the removal of heavy metal contaminants from wastewater.

Keywords: A549 cells; E. faecalis_RMSN6; Fe3O4; chromium (VI); exopolysaccharide.