Antibacterial and antioxidant activities of graphene and graphene oxide synthesis coated silver nanoparticules

Abstract

Graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide were rapidly and directly prepared by a thermal shock for a few seconds. After simply subjecting a mixture of intercalated graphite to a temperature of 650 and 850 °C, we obtained a large quantity of tGO and trGO, respectively. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized on the thermal graphene oxide tGO (and thermal reduced graphene oxide trGO) surface. We investigated the obtained tGO, trGO, tGO-Ag, and trGO-Ag nanocomposites using X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, particle size analysis and RAMAN spectroscopy. The results approved the successful synthesis and functionalizing of silver-graphene nanocomposites. Hence, the exceptional thermal stability was estimated to be 920 °C for tGO (and trGO) from TGA and increased for tGO-Ag (and trGO-Ag). Our study of the antimicrobial and antioxidant activity, as an application for these nanocomposites, revealed a highly effective performance, with demonstrated antibacterial activity against six tested bacterial strains. Additionally, we observed a strong antioxidant capacity that exceeded that of ascorbic acid for the trGO-Ag nanocomposite.