Investigation of Antimicrobial activity of CTAB assisted hydrothermally derived Nano BaTiO3

In spite of demonstrated application of nano barium titanate (BaTiO3) in biomedical applications, its antibacterial/fungal activity and biocompatibility studies are hitherto unexplored. Present work reports synthesis, characterization and assessment of antimicrobial and hemolytic activity of nano BaTiO3, owing to their potential futuristic biomedical applications. Nano BaTiO3 is prepared by surfactant (Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTAB) assisted hydrothermal synthesis and is characterized by various analytical and spectroscopic techniques. Morphology of the as synthesized nano BaTiO3 is cubic in nature. Based on the characterization techniques, nano BaTiO3 synthesised using 15 mM CTAB (15-CBT) were considered for antimicrobial activity against various multidrug-resistant pathogens. Good inhibition activity was observed against C. albicans with MIC value of 0.37 mg ml(-1) and MFC of 0.75 mg ml(-1). C. albicans treated with 10 mg of 15-CBT showed only 30% cell viability. The anticandidal mechanism of nano BaTiO3 against C. albicans was attributed to decrease in ergosterol biosynthesis leading to cell death. Further, only 3% hemolytic activity on human blood RBCs was observed at 0.2 mg ml(-1) of 15-CBT. The anticandidal activity and hemolytic activity of the synthesised nano BaTiO3 is systematically investigated and reported.