Cytotoxic activity of greener synthesis of cerium oxide nanoparticles using carrageenan towards a WEHI 164 cancer cell line

Abstract Carrageenan hydrogel as a “greener” and a vegetable-based stabilizing agent has the potential for many biosyntheses of different nanoparticles by sol-gel method. Herein, we describe for the first time an economic and eco-friendly preparation of cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2-NPs) using carrageenan. When carrageenan hydrogel comes in contact with a cerium nitrate solution, cerium ions anchor themselves to the –SO3- groups into the carrageenan and after the gelation process, have fewer opportunities escaping from the polymeric network. The CeO2-NPs were well-prepared and successfully characterized by PXRD, FTIR, FESEM, UV–Vis, and TGA-DTA. The calcined CeO2-NPs showed strong UV absorption (λmax = 328 nm) with the calculated band gap of 2.69 eV. The results obtained from FESEM images indicate that CeO2-NPs obtained at 600 °C ranges from 18 to 60 nm and have a mean diameter of ~34 nm. The in vitro cytotoxicity study on WEHI 164 cell line has mentioned low toxic and non-toxic CeO2-NPs in a range of concentrations (0.97–250 μg/ml), thus, we reckon that the greener synthesized CeO2-NPs will have persistent utilization in various fields of medical applications.