Simple and eco-friendly magnetite preparation, its characterization and DNA extraction application

Magnetite nanoparticles in this study were synthesized using a simple and eco-friendly method. The synthesized particles were characterized using a Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). The ability of the particles to interact with DNA was evaluated using Infrared spectrophotometry (IR) and tested in DNA extraction procedures for several microbial species. Results showed that synthesized magnetite exhibited an agglomerated structure with nanoscale dimensions. Fe and O elements, detected through EDS analysis, confirmed the formation of iron oxide during the synthesis process. Magnetite characteristics were demonstrated in the XRD analysis, with the highest intensity at 2θ value 35.45º, interplanar spacing 2.530 Å and crystallite size of 17.422 nm. The magnetic property of the synthesized magnetite was identified as ferromagnetic. The interaction between the magnetite and DNA was evident at 944.63, 1103.79, 1124.97 and 1161.37 cm⁻¹ in the IR spectra. The produced magnetite was successfully applied for microbial DNA extraction from a laboratory consortium including E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, S. paratyphi and M. tuberculosis. All extracted DNA samples were successfully amplified using a 16S rRNA primer pair. This demonstrated ability to extract microbial DNA makes the synthesized magnetite suitable for environmental monitoring applications including microbial identification and contamination detection.