Potential enhancement of antibacterial activity of graphene oxide-silver nanocomposite by introducing C2 carbon chain linkage

Abstract Various carbon chain linkages were introduced during the process of synthesizing silver-nanoparticles (AgNPs)-decorated graphene nanocomposites [referred to as GO-Cx-Ag where, HS-(CH2)x-SH = Cx and x = 0, 2, or 4] to evaluate antibacterial properties. The nano-structures of GO-Cx-Ag were characterized using TEM and XPS, revealing that GO-C2-Ag comprises well-dispersed and smaller AgNPs anchored onto the surface of graphene sheets than the GO-C0-Ag and GO-C4-Ag. The antibacterial activities of those nanocomposites were assessed using paper-disk diffusion and minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The results showed that carbon chain linkers enhanced the antibacterial activity against Gram-negative Salmonella typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus. In particular, GO-C2-Ag showed higher antibacterial activity than GO-C0-Ag and GO-C4-Ag due to nearly eight times higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation which determined by fluorescence-based ROS detection experiment. Also, LC-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (LC-ICP-MS) demonstrated that the Ag release from GO-Cx-Ag was insignificant (0.03%). However, the higher ROS formation from GO-C2-Ag was facilitated by higher dispersion, smaller size, and well attachment of AgNPs with AgO species onto graphene sheets. These results suggest that the medium length carbon chain linkers in between Ag and GO can be utilized to improve antibacterial activity.