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. 2025 Jan 9;30(2):240.
doi: 10.3390/molecules30020240.

Structural, Morphological, and Antibacterial Attributes of Graphene Oxide Prepared by Hummers' and Brodie's Methods

Vittorio Marsala  1   2   3 , Yuriy Gerasymchuk  2 , Maria Luisa Saladino  1   4 , Emil Paluch  5   6 , Magdalena Wawrzyńska  5 , Vitalii Boiko  2   7 , Xiang Li  8 , Cristina Giordano  8 , Dariusz Hreniak  2 , Beata Sobieszczańska  6
Affiliations

Structural, Morphological, and Antibacterial Attributes of Graphene Oxide Prepared by Hummers' and Brodie's Methods

Vittorio Marsala et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Graphite oxidation to graphene oxide (GO) is carried out using methods developed by Brodie (GO-B) and Hummers (GO-H). However, a comparison of the antibacterial properties based on the physicochemical properties has not been performed. Therefore, this paper outlines a comparative analysis of GO-H and GO-B on antibacterial efficacy against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial cultures and biofilms in an aqueous environment and discusses which of the properties of these GO nanomaterials have the most significant impact on the antibacterial activity of these materials. Synthesis of GO with Brodie's and modified Hummers' methods was followed by an evaluation of their structural, morphological, and physicochemical properties by Raman, FTIR, UV-vis spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The GO-B surface appeared more oxidized than that of GO-H, which could be crucial for interactions with bacteria. According to our results, GO-B demonstrated notably superior anti-biofilm efficacy. Despite its higher production cost, GO-B exhibits more excellent capabilities in combating bacterial biofilms than GO-H.

Keywords: antibacterial activity; aqueous nanodispersions; biofilm; graphene oxide.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Raman spectra of GO-B and GO-H samples and (b) ratio between the intensity of the D band and G band in the samples.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) XRD patterns and (b) FTIR spectra of GO-B and GO-H samples.
Figure 3
Figure 3
XPS survey (a,b), C1s (c,d), and O1s (e,f) spectra of GO-H and GO-B samples.
Figure 4
Figure 4
TEM micrographs of (a,b) GO-H and (e,f) GO-B samples and EDS maps of oxygen (red) and carbon (green) of (c,d) GO-H and (g,h) GO-B samples.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Graphs of the results of methylene blue titration of GO-H (a) and GO-B (b) samples and graphs of the dependence of absorbance intensity on the amount of added MB stock solution for GO-H (c) and GO-B (d).
Figure 6
Figure 6
The impact of GO-B and GO-H on bacterial biofilm production and eradication. * indicates statistical differences compared to negative control (No GO) calculated by the ANOVA test with p < 0.05 considered significant.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Effect of GO on the formation and eradication of bacterial biofilms. The white scale bar in the lower right image indicates a magnification of 400× for all images.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Schematic diagrams for the two methods employed for the preparation of GO-B (in yellow, left) and GO-H (in blue, right).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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