Abstract
As a means of addressing medical problems, rare earth nano-oxides are gaining prominence. For the first time, Silver (Ag) and Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) capped Yttrium oxide (Y2O3) ternary nanocomposites (Ag/PVP @ Y2O3 ) were synthesised using a hydrothermal route. In fixed amounts of PVP and Y2O3, different concentrations of Ag (0.5% and 1.5%) were utilised. XRD, FTIR, HRTEM, XPS, UV-VIS, and PL spectroscopy were used to systematically characterise the as-synthesised NCs. By employing the X-ray diffractogram (XRD) technique, the Y2O3 crystals have a rod-shaped cubic structure, with doping causing them to increase from 41 nm to 52 nm in size. Peaks at 563 cm− 1 and 559 cm− 1 in the FTIR spectrum demonstrated the presence of Y2O3 and indicated the formation of the Y-O bond. The charge transfer efficiency of the synthesised nanocomposites was shown by PL spectra. XPS analysis validated the existence of constituent elements (Y2O3) and dopants (Ag, and PVP), as long as only a single element of zero valence silver was present in the system. The Ag/PVP @ Y2O3 NPs showed the most remarkable cytotoxicity with the IC50 value of 32.56 µg/mL against MCF-7 cells which could be a promising agent in the field of nanomedicine.