GRAPHENE OXIDE AS ANTIMICROBIAL AGAINST TWO GRAM-POSITIVE AND TWO GRAM-NEGATIVE BACTERIA IN ADDITION TO ONE FUNGUS

Abstract

Graphene based materials have wide potential applications in biology, biomedical, agriculture environmental and biotechnology. Graphene Oxide (GO) is one of those materials and has a promising substance as antimicrobial agents. GO in this study was prepared by a modified Hummers method and was characterized by different techniques for confirmation of formation of GO. To study the antimicrobial activities of GO, it was tested against these microorganisms, one eukaryotic fungus (Candida albicans, C. albicans) two Gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli (E. coli) ATCC 41570 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) ATCC 25619) and two Gram positive bacteria (Streptococcus faecalis (S. faecalis) ATCC 19433 and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) ATCC 11632). Anti-microbial activity of GO was detected by spectrophotometer as indirect method to measure the growth and viable cell count as direct method. Readings were taken at successive incubated times. Results revealed that GO has antibacterial and anti-fungal activity against microorganisms used in this study. In conculosion the developed GO exhibit excellent antimicrobial property and GO affects more on Gram positive bacteria than Gram negative bacteria and fungi.