Synthesis and characterization of Zn doped CoFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles and their antimicrobial and wound healing assay

• Cobalt ferrite (COF) and Zn 0.2 Co 0.8 Fe 2 O 4 (ZCOF) synthesized by sol–gel auto combustion method. • ZCOF is more effective for biomedicine compared to its undoped counterpart. • ZCOF shows higher cell viability for mammalian cells compared to pure COF, making preferrable for biomedical applications. In this study, we evaluated the antimicrobial and wound healing assay of CoFe 2 O 4 (COF) and Zn 0.2 Co 0.8 Fe 2 O 4 (ZCOF) nanoparticles formed via sol–gel auto combustion method. The physicochemical characteristics of prepared materials were analyzed using XRD, FTIR, XPS, FESEM, EDS, BET, and VSM. The ZCOF shows enhanced responses for all biological studies compared to COF because of the high surface area of 9.06 m 2 /g for ZCOF and 5.94 m 2 /g for COF. The magnetic saturation is found to be 87.51 emu/g for ZCOF, 70.76 emu/g for COF, and the coercivity of 466.12 Oe for ZCOF, 580.08 Oe for COF. These results confirm the synthesized nanoparticles will benefit from the presented vision with varied doping elements for enhanced biological activity.