Anti-microbial active composite nanoparticles with magnetic core and photocatalytic shell: TiO2–NiFe2O4 biomaterial system

Reverse micelle and chemical hydrolysis techniques have been successfully combined to synthesize composite nanoparticles consisting of a photocatalytic shell of titania and a magnetic core of nickel ferrite. The nature of titania shell, i.e. anatase or brookite, depends on the TiO2 and NiFe2O4 molar ratio. The work presented here describes the photocatalytic and anti-microbial activity of the composite nanoparticles together with the magnetic characteristics of the nickel ferrite core. The TiO2-coated NiFe2O4 nanoparticles retain the magnetic characteristics of uncoated nanocrystalline nickel ferrites (superparamagnetism; absence of hysteresis, remanence and coercivity at 300 K) encouraging their application as removable anti-microbial photocatalyst nanoparticles that can be extracted from the sprayed surface (human body or environment) after exposure.