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Abstract
As antimicrobials, graphene materials (GMs) may have advantages over traditional antibiotics due to their physical mechanisms of action which ensure less chance of development of microbial resistance. However, the fundamental question as to whether the antibacterial mechanism of GMs originates from parallel interaction or perpendicular interaction, or from a combination of these, remains poorly understood. Here, we show both experimentally and theoretically that GMs with high surface oxygen content (SOC) predominantly attach in parallel to the bacterial cell surface when in the suspension phase. The interaction mode shifts to perpendicular interaction when the SOC reaches a threshold of ∼0.3 (the atomic percent of O in the total atoms). Such distinct interaction modes are highly related to the rigidity of GMs. Graphene oxide (GO) with high SOC is very flexible and thus can wrap bacteria while reduced GO (rGO) with lower SOC has higher rigidity and tends to contact bacteria with their edges. Neither mode necessarily kills bacteria. Rather, bactericidal activity depends on the interaction of GMs with surrounding biomolecules. These findings suggest that variation of SOC of GMs is a key factor driving the interaction mode with bacteria, thus helping to understand the different possible physical mechanisms leading to their antibacterial activity.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 6350-6361 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | ACS Nano |
Volume | 17 |
Issue number | 7 |
Early online date | 26 Feb 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 26 Feb 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12105163, 11405183, 21507153, 11275215, and 11275218), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2020QD133), Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2013CB932703), The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Impact Acceleration Accounts Developing Leaders (Grant No. 1001634) and EU H2020 project NanoSolveIT (Grant Agreement 814572), RiskGone (Grant Agreement 814425), and NanoCommons (Grant Agreement 731032). Funding support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement (754340) and Royal Society International Exchange Programs (1853690 and 2122860) are also acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.
Keywords
- antibacterial activity
- graphene oxide
- interaction mode
- membrane damage
- oxidative potential
- surface oxygen content
- Article
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Engineering(all)
- Physics and Astronomy(all)
- Materials Science(all)
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