Biogenic synthesis of iron oxide nanorods using Moringa oleifera leaf extract for antibacterial applications

Biogenic synthesis of iron oxide nanorods (FeO-NRs) from FeCl3 capped with Moringa oleifera (MO) has been developed in this work. The facile, cost effective, and eco-friendly FeO-NRs formulated were characterized using various techniques. The change in the visible color which leads to the formulation of FeO-NRs was confirmed by the UV–visible spectroscopy analysis. The crystallinity of FeO-NRs was observed in the X-ray diffraction spectroscopy pattern indexed to the spinel cubic lattice in the tetrahedral hematite structure. A rod-like morphology of FeO-NRs with the average particle size of 15.01 ± 6.03 nm was determined by the scanning and transmission electron microscopies. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis shows the various functional groups in the formulatedFeO-NRs. Vibrating sample magnetometer shows that the formulated FeO-NRs are superparamagnetic with good saturation magnetization. The formulated FeO-NRs inhibit the growth of six human pathogens with a higher activity at lower concentrations. It is noteworthy that the bacterial strains show strong and effective susceptibility to the formulated FeO-NRs at lower concentrations compared to the conventional antibacterial drugs. Hence, the formulated FeO-NRs proved to be a good, efficient, and promising antibacterial agent due to its cost-effectiveness, non-toxicity, and facile synthesis procedures in therapeutic biomedical fields.