Enhancing anticancer, antioxidant, and antibacterial activities of chalcogen-based SnSe nanoparticles synthesized through the co-precipitation method

SnSe powdered nanoparticles (NPs) are prepared using the co-precipitation method. The powdered NPs were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-absorbance spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterization techniques. The XRD result indicates that NPs are orthorhombic with a crystalline size of 4 nm for TS-1, 6 nm for TS2, and 13 nm for TS-3, respectively. The SEM images show the surface morphology of the prepared NPs is not fully spherical, but semi-flower-like. The optical properties of the powdered NPs are found by UV-Vis absorbance spectroscopy, in which the highest absorbance was found between 200 nm and 300 nm. The anticancer activities of SnSe NPs against HELA (Cervical cancer cell line) and HEK (Human embryonic kidney cell line) increase with the Se ratio, which indicates that Se tends to enhance anticancer activities. The DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrozyl), metal chelating, and lipid peroxidation activities show a similar trend of increasing percentage with the increasing Se ratio. The antibacterial activity was carried out against two Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, and two Gram-positive bacteria, Streptococcus pneumonia, and Streptococcus epidermidis possess a better antibacterial effect.