Particles Morphology Impact on Cytotoxicity, Hemolytic Activity and Sorption Properties of Porous Aluminosilicates of Kaolinite Group

A comparative study of the properties of aluminosilicates of the kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4∙nH2O) group with different particles morphology has been carried out. Under conditions of directed hydrothermal synthesis, kaolinite nanoparticles with spherical, sponge, and platy morphologies were obtained. Raw nanotubular halloysite was used as particles with tubular morphology. The samples were studied by X-ray diffraction, SEM, solid-state NMR, low-temperature nitrogen adsorption, and the dependence of the zeta potential of the samples on the pH of the medium was defined. The sorption capacity with respect to cationic dye methylene blue in aqueous solutions was studied. It was found that sorption capacity depends on particles morphology and decreases in the series spheres-sponges-tubes-plates. The Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin models describe experimental methylene blue adsorption isotherms on aluminosilicates of the kaolinite subgroup with different particles morphology. To process the kinetic data, pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order were used. For the first time, studies of the dependence of hemolytic activity and cytotoxicity of aluminosilicate nanoparticles on their morphology were carried out. It was found that aluminosilicate nanosponges and spherical particles are not toxic to human erythrocytes and do not cause their destruction at sample concentrations from 0.1 to 1 mg/g. Based on the results of the MTT test, the concentration value that causes 50% inhibition of cell population growth (IC50, mg/mL) was calculated. For nanotubes, this value turned out to be the smallest—0.33 mg/mL. For samples with platy, spherical and nanosponge morphology, the IC50 values were 1.55, 2.68, and 4.69 mg/mL, respectively.