Silver-modified graphene oxide nanosheets for antibacterial performance of bone scaffold

Endowing scaffold with antibacterial activity is an effective countermeasure to prevent bacterial infection in bone repair. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) possess broad-spectrum antibacterial efficiency, whereas the agglomeration and burst releasing of Ag NPs hindered their clinic application in bone repair. In this work, Ag NPs were in situ grown on graphene oxide (GO) to construct Ag@GO nanohybrids and then were introduced into polymer scaffold. GO could efficiently load Ag NPs thereby improving their agglomeration in a scaffold, owing to their abundant active groups and large surface areas. Furthermore, GO could realize the sustained release of Ag ions from the scaffold. The results demonstrated the antibacterial scaffold exhibited robust antibacterial performance with an antibacterial rate of 95% against Staphylococcus aureus. On one hand, GO with honeycomb nanostructure and sharp edge could capture and pierce bacteria membrane, which results in physical damage of bacteria. On the other hand, the released Ag NPs from Ag@GO nanohybrids could promote the generation of reactive oxygen species, which causes the inactivation of bacteria. Encouragingly, the antibacterial scaffold also exhibited good cytocompatibility. This work developed an efficient antibacterial material for the scaffold in bone repair.