Reinforced modified carboxymethyl cellulose films with graphene oxide/silver nanoparticles as antimicrobial agents

Abstract

Ultra sonicated graphene oxide/silver nanoparticles (GO@ Ag0) which prepared by green chemistry approach in a microwave from sugarcane bagasse (SCB) were mixed with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) at varied loading ratios (5-15wt %) to create biopolymer films. The GO@ Ag0 forms a network with the CMC matrix, which was first proved by the MHBS calculations, SEM, thermal and mechanical data. This finding confirmed that the GO@Ag has high compatibility within the CMC matrix owing to the oxygenated graphene oxide (GO). Furthermore, with the addition of 15wt% GO@ Ag0 (i.e. CMC-GO@Ag 15%), 14.31% increase of thermal stability,96.13% of YM, and 16.82% of TS were achieved. Moreover, the CMC-GO@Ag5%, CMC-GO@Ag10% and CMC-GO@Ag15% films exhibit greater efficacy against both Gram +ve and -ve bacteria as well as yeast compared to pristine CMC film. We might suppose that these films' outstanding performance made them suitable for food packaging (due to its anti-microbial properties)and electrochemical biosensing (due to the presence of Ag0).