Graphene oxide/silver nanohybrid: Optimization, antibacterial activity and its impregnation on bacterial cellulose as a potential wound dressing based on GO‐Ag nanocomposite‐coated BC

Abstract

Recently, bacterial cellulose (BC) based wound dressing have raised significant interests in medical fields. However, to our best knowledge, it is apparent that the BC itself has no antibacterial activity. In this study, we optimized graphene oxide-silver (GO-Ag) nanohybrid synthesis using Response Surface Methodology and impregnate it to BC and carefully investigate their antibacterial activities against both the Gram-negative bacteria <i>Escherichia coli</i> and the Gram-positive bacteria <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>. We discover that, compared to silver nanoparticles, GO-Ag nanohybrid with an optimal GO suspension's pH and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mfrac><mml:mrow><mml:mo>[</mml:mo> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>G</mml:mi> <mml:mi>O</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mo>]</mml:mo></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>[</mml:mo> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mi>g</mml:mi> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:msub><mml:mi>O</mml:mi> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msub> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>]</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:mfrac> </mml:math> ratio is much more effective and shows synergistically enhanced, strong antibacterial activities at rather low dose. The GO-Ag nanohybrid is more toxic to <i>E. coli</i> than that to <i>S. aureus</i>. The antibacterial and mechanical properties of BC/GO-Ag composite are further investigated.