Antibacterial Properties and Mechanism of Graphene Oxide with Different C/O Ratio

Abstract

Abstract Graphene oxide (GO) has been extensively studied in biomedicine area on account of its great antibacterial activity. However, there are many factors that affect its antibacterial performance, and its mechanism of action is still unclear. In this paper, our modified Hummer method was used to prepare high-purity GO, and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with different oxygen content was prepared by controlling different vacuum thermal reduction times. The impact of carbon-oxygen ratio on the antibacterial features of GO was studied. It is found that GO inactivates bacterial cells through oxidative stress, and the oxygen-containing groups also play a vital role.