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In the present study, the eco-friendly and economical methods have been developed by employing natural iron sand as a main precursor to create Fe3O4/ZnO nanocomposites (NCs). The formation of Fe3O4/ZnO NCs was confirmed using XRD, synchrotron-based SAXS, FTIR spectroscopy, and SEM. The XRD results revealed that the Fe3O4 and ZnO crystallised spinel cubic and hexagonal wurtzite structures. The SAXS results exposed the construction of fractal dimension with the values of 3.20–3.70, which indicated a compact structure in 3-dimensions. The SEM images showed that the morphology of the samples tended to agglomerate in nanometric size. The FTIR spectra proved the presence of the Fe–O and Zn–O bonds as the main components of the NCs. The UV–vis spectroscopy analysis revealed that the bandgap energy of the Fe3O4/ZnO NCs ranged from 2.244 to 3.533 eV. Furthermore, the Fe3O4/ZnO NCs demonstrated superparamagnetic behaviour with the blocking temperature below 212 K, and their saturation magnetisation increased with increasing Fe3O4 content. Interestingly, all samples demonstrated excellent inhibitory performance against C. albicans, which indicates that the Fe3O4/ZnO NCs synthesised by eco-friendly and economical methods from natural iron sand for the first time are novel candidates for use as high-performance antifungal agents.

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In this research, the synthesis of ZnO/Fe3O4 nanocomposites was conducted using sonochemical and sol-gel methods as well as natural materials as the primary raw material. The results of X-ray diffraction data analysis showed that the synthesis of nanocomposite used sonochemistry method which resulted in the sample with ZnO and Fe3O4 phases without the presence of the others. Interestingly, the sol-gel method resulted in a sample with ZnFe2O4 and α-Fe2O3 phases without the presence of ZnO. This case happened since Zn formed oxide compound in the form of spinel zinc ferrite. By using the Scherrer equation, the crystallite sizes were of about 7.5 nm for Fe3O4, 25.5 nm for ZnO, 13.6 nm for α-Fe2O3, and 11.6 nm for ZnFe2O4. The elemental compositions of the sample as the synthesis using sonochemical method were 33.08% for Fe and 66.91% for Zn. Meanwhile, the elemental compositions of the sample as the result of synthesis using the sol-gel method were 58.25% or Fe and 41.75% for Zn. Moreover, the infra-red spectrum showed that the functional group of the Fe3O4 phase was observed on the wavenumber of 550 cm−1 and 676 cm−1; the functional group of ZnO phase was found on the wavenumber of 433 cm−1; the functional group of α-Fe2O3 was detected on the wavenumber of 479 cm−1 and 551 cm−1; and the functional group of ZnFe2O4 was recorded on the wavenumber of 526 cm−1. Thereby, the sonochemical method in this study provides a new alternative in the synthesis of ZnO/Fe3O4 nanocomposite using natural material as the primary raw material.

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