Stoichiometry-engineered cobalt ferrite-based nanomaterials with tunable magnetism, magnetostriction, and in vitro cytotoxicity
9 affiliations
- 1Department of Physics, Vivekanand College, Chattrapati Sambhajinagar, 431001 MS India
- 2Department of Physics, Deogiri College, Chattrapati Sambhajinagar, 431001 MS India
- 3Solid State Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400085 MS India
- 4Department of Physics, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 143005 Punjab India
- 5Department of Botanical & Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 143005 Punjab India
- 6Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451 Saudi Arabia
- 7Symbiosis Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India
- 8Materials Research Laboratory, Srikrishna Mahavidyalaya Gunjoti, Omerga, Dharashiv, 413613 MS India
- 9School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia
Abstract
Composition-dependent Co-Fe oxide samples with nominal CoxFe3-xO4 stoichiometry (x = 0.5–1.1) were prepared by sol-gel auto-combustion to examine their phase constitution, microstructure, magnetic behavior, pellet-scale magnetostriction, and in vitro response toward MCF-7 breast-cancer cells. Rietveld analysis showed coexistence of cubic spinel ferrite and α-Fe2O3 for x = 0.5–0.8, whereas x = 0.9–1.1 were predominantly single-phase spinel; crystallite sizes were approximately 20–30 nm. At 300 K, coercivity reached 1.86 kOe for x = 0.7. Sintered-pellet measurements also gave the largest longitudinal magnetostriction at x = 0.7 (λ∥,max = -425 ppm), while x = 0.9 and 1.0 showed lower measured strain magnitudes. In MTT assays conducted without an applied magnetic field, growth inhibition increased with concentration and was highest for x = 1.1 and x = 1.0, reaching 46.2% and 44.7%, respectively, at 1000 µg mL-1 after 48 h. Phase-contrast microscopy and DAPI nuclear staining showed concentration-dependent loss of confluence, cell rounding, and nuclear condensation or fragmentation. These observations indicate cytotoxic damage but do not by themselves establish apoptosis or its molecular mechanism. Because magnetostriction was measured on sintered pellets, whereas the biological assays used nanoparticle suspensions under zero-field conditions, the two data sets are treated as independent outcomes. The present results establish composition-dependent structure–magnetic–magnetostrictive relationships in Co–Fe oxide nanomaterials together with their baseline in-vitro response, while the measured magnetostrictive properties provide a materials-level basis for future magnetic-field-assisted biomedical investigations.
Graphical abstract:
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-026-05074-8.
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BibTeX
@article{gaikwad2026stoichiometryengineered,
title = {{Stoichiometry-engineered cobalt ferrite-based nanomaterials with tunable magnetism, magnetostriction, and in vitro cytotoxicity}},
author = {Anil S. Gaikwad and Manisha R. Patil and Sher Singh Meena and Gurdev Preet Singh and Jasvir Singh and Sharabjit Singh and Ahmed Ahmed Ibrahim and Rutuja Gumathannavar and Akash V. Fulari and Ram H. Kadam and Danyang Wang and Sagar E. Shirsath},
journal = {Discover Nano},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1186/s11671-026-05074-8},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-026-05074-8},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Stoichiometry-engineered cobalt ferrite-based nanomaterials with tunable magnetism, magnetostriction, and in vitro cytotoxicity
AU - Anil S. Gaikwad
AU - Manisha R. Patil
AU - Sher Singh Meena
AU - Gurdev Preet Singh
AU - Jasvir Singh
AU - Sharabjit Singh
AU - Ahmed Ahmed Ibrahim
AU - Rutuja Gumathannavar
AU - Akash V. Fulari
AU - Ram H. Kadam
AU - Danyang Wang
AU - Sagar E. Shirsath
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
JO - Discover Nano
DO - 10.1186/s11671-026-05074-8
UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-026-05074-8
AB - Composition-dependent Co-Fe oxide samples with nominal CoxFe3-xO4 stoichiometry (x = 0.5–1.1) were prepared by sol-gel auto-combustion to examine their phase constitution, microstructure, magnetic behavior, pellet-scale magnetostriction, and in vitro response toward MCF-7 breast-cancer cells. Rietveld analysis showed coexistence of cubic spinel ferrite and α-Fe2O3 for x = 0.5–0.8, whereas x = 0.9–1.1 were predominantly single-phase spinel; crystallite sizes were approximately 20–30 nm. At 300 K, coercivity reached 1.86 kOe for x = 0.7. Sintered-pellet measurements also gave the largest longitudinal magnetostriction at x = 0.7 (λ∥,max = -425 ppm), while x = 0.9 and 1.0 showed lower measured strain magnitudes. In MTT assays conducted without an applied magnetic field, growth inhibition increased with concentration and was highest for x = 1.1 and x = 1.0, reaching 46.2% and 44.7%, respectively, at 1000 µg mL-1 after 48 h. Phase-contrast microscopy and DAPI nuclear staining showed concentration-dependent loss of confluence, cell rounding, and nuclear condensation or fragmentation. These observations indicate cytotoxic damage but do not by themselves establish apoptosis or its molecular mechanism. Because magnetostriction was measured on sintered pellets, whereas the biological assays used nanoparticle suspensions under zero-field conditions, the two data sets are treated as independent outcomes. The present results establish composition-dependent structure–magnetic–magnetostrictive relationships in Co–Fe oxide nanomaterials together with their baseline in-vitro response, while the measured magnetostrictive properties provide a materials-level basis for future magnetic-field-assisted biomedical investigations. Graphical abstract: Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-026-05074-8.
SN - 2731-9229
ER -