Synthesis of FeO/Ag nanohybrid ferrofluids and their applications as antimicrobial and antifibrotic agents.

To date, the search for creating stable ferrofluids with excellent properties for biomedical application is one of the challenging scientific and practical investigations. In this study, novel FeO/Ag nanohybrid ferrofluids from iron sand were synthesized using a double-layer method. The FeO/Ag nanocomposites exhibited stable crystallite sizes of 11.8 12.1 nm and 36.8-37.2 nm for FeO and Ag, respectively. The lattice parameters of the spinel structure FeO and face-centered cubic Ag were respectively 8.344 Å and 4.091 Å. With increasing Ag amount, the crystallite phase of Ag in the nanocomposites increased from 40.2% to 77.2%. The XPS results confirmed that FeO/Ag nanocomposites were successfully prepared, where FeO mixed well with Ag via strong ionic bonding. The FTIR results confirmed the presence of FeO/Ag, oleic acid, and dimethyl sulfoxide as the filler, first layer, and second layer, respectively. The as-prepared ferrofluids exhibited superparamagnetic behavior, where the saturation magnetization decreased with increasing Ag content. The FeO/Ag nanohybrid ferrofluids exhibited excellent antimicrobial performance against , , , and . More importantly, the FeO/Ag nanohybrid ferrofluids decreased the progression of liver fibrosis-related inflammation and fibrogenic activity on hepatic stellate cells.