Surface-Modified Cobalt Ferrite Nanoparticles for Rapid Capture, Detection, and Removal of Pathogens: a Potential Material for Water Purification

Enteric infections resulting from the consumption of contaminated drinking water, inadequate supply of water for personal hygiene, and poor sanitation take a heavy toll worldwide, and developing countries are the major sufferers. Consumption of microbiologically contaminated water leads to diseases such as amoebiasis, cholera, shigellosis, typhoid, and viral infections leading to gastroenteritis and hepatitis B. The present investigation deals with the development of effective method to capture and eliminate microbial contamination of water and improve the quality of water and thus decreasing the contaminated waterborne infections. Over the last decade, numerous biomedical applications have emerged for magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) specifically iron oxide nanoparticles. For the first time, we have explored functionalized cobalt ferrite nanoparticles (NPs) for capture and detection of pathogens. The captured bacterial were separated by using simple magnet. To begin with, the prepared NPs were confirmed for biocompatibility study and further used for their ability to detect the bacteria in solution. For this, standard bacterial concentrations were prepared and used to confirm the ability of these particles to capture and detect the bacteria. The effect of particle concentration, time, and pH has been studied, and the respective results have been discussed. It is observed that the presence of amine group on the surface of NPs shows nonspecific affinity and capability to capture Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The possible underlying mechanism is discussed in the present manuscript. Based upon this, the present material can be considered for large-scale bacteria capture in water purification application.