Antibacterial Action of Nanoparticle Loaded Nanocomposites Based on Graphene and Its Derivatives: A Mini-Review

Abstract

Bacterial infections constitute a severe problem in various areas of everyday life, causing pain and death, and adding enormous costs to healthcare worldwide. Besides, they cause important concerns in other industries, such as cloth, food packaging, and biomedicine, among others. Despite the intensive efforts of academics and researchers, there is lack of a general solutions to restrict bacterial growth. Among the various approaches, the use of antibacterial nanomaterials is a very promising way to fight the microorganisms due to their high specific surface area and intrinsic or chemically incorporated antibacterial action. Graphene, a 2D carbon-based ultra-thin biocompatible nanomaterial with excellent mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties, and its derivatives, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO), are highly suitable candidates for restricting microbial infections. However, the mechanisms of antimicrobial action, their cytotoxicity, and other issues remain unclear. This mini-review provides select examples on the leading advances in the development of antimicrobial nanocomposites incorporating inorganic nanoparticles and graphene or its derivatives, with the aim of providing a better understanding of the antibacterial properties of graphene-based nanomaterials.

Antibacterial Activity of Polymer Nanocomposites Incorporating Graphene and Its Derivatives: A State of Art

“…The GO-Ag nanocomposite sheets likely wrap around the microorganism in direct contact, aided by hydrogen bonding with the cell membrane proteins, blocking them and causing apoptosis. Thus, there is likely a synergistic effect of both nanofillers on improving antibacterial activity, as reported for several graphene-based multicomponent composites [ 39 ].…”

“…For instance, Bacali et al [ 38 ] evaluated the effect of adding GO-Ag nanoparticles to a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) auto-polymerizing resin. When Ag nanoparticles interact with bacteria, they agglomerate; hence their effective specific surface area decreases, leading to reduced antibacterial action [ 39 ]. However, the hybrids with 1 and 2 wt% GO-Ag showed very good antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, E. coli and S. mutans.…”

Antiviral Textiles: A Review on their types and Significance

“…The matrix of Graphene oxide-silver is highly dispersible in water, also contains specific surface area, exhibit good bactericidal activity at very low concentration and not corrosive in nature [39]. The bactericide effect of (GO-Ag) can be described in 4 levels firstly silver ions are released then they penetrate through the cell membrane after that ROS generation followed by DNA, protein, mitochondria, lipids and membrane damage which finally leads to death of a cell [40]. Antimicrobial active silver nanoparticles are incorporated into polyviscose medical textile substrate through simple wet chemical surface treatment process in which these treated substrates showed high air stability and chemical inertia by reduced graphene oxide -silver nanoparticles.…”

Carbon-Based Nanomaterials

“…However, the mechanisms of antimicrobial action, their cytotoxicity, and other issues remain unclear. Selected examples on the preparation of antimicrobial nanocomposites incorporating inorganic nanoparticles and graphene or its derivatives have been provided [ 17 ]. The antibacterial property of composites of rGO with Ag and ZnO nanoparticles synthesized using a microwave-assisted approach has been investigated in detail [ 18 ].…”