Fabrication and antibacterial activity of nanoenhanced conjugate of silver (I) oxide with graphene oxide

Abstract

Due to the globally identified antibiotic resistance among clinical bacteria, novel antibacterial materials are needed to circumvent drug resistance. In this study, we report a facile synthesis method for the fabrication of a uniform silver (I) oxide (Ag2O) garnished graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite (Ag2O/GO) using sonication and characterized them by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and UV–vis spectroscopy. Furthermore, the antibacterial properties of Ag2O, GO, and Ag2O/GO nanocomposite were studied using drug resistant Gram-negative Escherichia coli (ESBL), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ESBL), Klebsiella pneumoniae and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus by well diffusion assay, colony forming ability, and cell membrane permeability assay. The nanocomposite (15.62−1000 μg/mL) showed excellent antibacterial activity with minimum inhibitory concentration of 125 μg/mL for P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae; 62.5 μg/mL for E. coli, and 250 μg/mL for S. aureus. Biofilm inhibition assay revealed the inhibition of biofilm formation in a dose related manner. Inhibition of biofilm formation by ½ MIC and MIC of Ag2O and Ag2O/GO against four pathogenic and biofilm forming bacteria was found statistically significant as P ≤ 0.05 (at ½ MIC) and P ≤ 0.01 (at MIC). These results demonstrated that these facile nanomaterials are promising antibacterial and antibiofilm agents that can be utilized to inhibit the growth of human bacterial pathogens associated with chronic infections.