Synthesis of zinc oxide/graphene oxide nanocomposite material for antibacterial application

In this study, graphene oxide (GO) was prepared by a modified Hummers' method and ZnO/GO was synthesised by coprecipitation. The structural and morphological properties of ZnO/GO nanocomposite were characterised by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, and Raman spectroscopy. The characterisation results show that ZnO nanoparticles with a mean size of 14–26 nm were synthesised and randomly decorated on the surfaces and edges of GO sheets. In addition, the antimicrobial activities of GO and ZnO/GO were tested against bacteria – Escherichia coli (E. coli). The test results reveal that the antibacterial activity at low loading of the ZnO/GO nanocomposite was higher than that of GO on E. coli.