Easily separated silver nanoparticle-decorated magnetic graphene oxide: Synthesis and high antibacterial activity

Silver nanoparticle-decorated magnetic graphene oxide (MGO-Ag) was synthesized by doping silver and Fe3O4 nanoparticles on the surface of GO, which was used as an antibacterial agent. MGO-Ag was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Energy dispersive X-ray (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and magnetic property tests. It can be found that magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and nano-Ag was well dispersed on graphene oxide; and MGO-Ag exhibited excellent antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Several factors were investigated to study the antibacterial effect of MGO-Ag, such as temperature, time, pH and bacterial concentration. We also found that MGO-Ag maintained high inactivation rates after use six times and can be separated easily after antibacterial process. Moreover, the antibacterial mechanism is discussed and the synergistic effect of GO, Fe3O4 nanoparticles and nano-Ag accounted for high inactivation of MGO-Ag.