Glutathione decorated gold-magnetic nanoparticles: efficient and recyclable catalyst for biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications

Abstract

Nowadays, since the core-shell gold-magnetite nanoparticles include the saturation magnetisation (iron oxide) and plasmon surface (gold shell) properties, they have been considered in biological and biomedicine research areas. In the present work, multifunctional glutathione decorated gold-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (GSH-AuMNPs) were successfully synthesised and fully characterised. From the absorption peak at 525, the formation of the core-shell GSH-AuMNPs was confirmed. Although the saturation magnetisation value was slightly decreased during the formation process, they were easily recovered through magnetic decantation. The biocompatibility of the synthesised NPs was approved by the cytotoxicity researches. Furthermore, the GSH-AuMNPs indicated a good catalytic activity for the catalytic reduction of 2-nitrophenol by sodium borohydride and reused for six consecutive cycles without a significant decrease in its activity. Overall, this study introduced a unique structure with high catalytic activity, which could provide a useful platform for the biomedical, analytical, catalytic applications and wastewater treatment.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Magnetic
• gold
• glutathione
• catalytic
• nanoparticle

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences for financial support.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.