Microwave-assisted one-step synthesis of polyacrylamide/NiO nanocomposite for biomedical applications

The study presents the successful one-step synthesis of a polyacrylamide/NiO nanocomposite (PAM/NiO NC) through the simultaneous formation of NiO nanoparticles (NiO NPs) and the polymerization of acrylamide (AM), which was carried out using the respective metal salt and AM monomer in ethylene glycol (EG) under microwave-assisted heating. The formation of the PAM/NiO NC was confirmed through UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. XRD data were used to calculate various crystallographic parameters, including crystallite size (via the Scherrer equation and other models), dislocation density, crystallinity, residual stress, and microstrain, and the analysis showed that the generated PAM/NiO NC has crystallite sizes ranging from 1 to 100 nm, within the accepted range. The crystallinity analysis revealed that the synthesized NC is semi-crystalline, with an average particle size of 26.33 nm, as determined by the Scherrer equation. As synthesized, NC exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against both Gram-negative (Klebsiella spp.SK4, E. coli RN89) and Gram-positive (Streptococcus aureus-8a) bacterial strains with the highest bactericidal capability against Klebsiella spp.SK4 irrespective of concentration. In vitro cytotoxicity study revealed the strongest toxicity against HELA cell lines by PAM/NiO NC and no toxicity towards BHK-21 cell lines indicating PAM/NiO NC potential for biomedical applications.