Bacterial response to graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide integrated in agar plates
Journal article, 2018

There are contradictory reports in the literature regarding the anti-bacterial activity of graphene, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). This controversy is mostly due to variations in key parameters of the reported experiments, like: type of substrate, form of graphene, number of layers, type of solvent and most importantly, type of bacteria. Here, we present experimental data related to bacterial response to GO and rGO integrated in solid agar-based nutrient plates-a standard set-up for bacterial growth that is widely used by microbiologists. Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains were used for testing bacterial growth. We observed that plate-integrated rGO showed strong anti-bacterial activity against both bacterial species. By contrast, plate-integrated GO was harmless to both bacteria. These results reinforce the notion that the response of bacteria depends critically on the type of graphene material used and can vary dramatically from one bacterial strain to another, depending on bacterial physiology.

graphene oxide

reduced graphene oxide

agar plates

Author

Venkata Raghavendra Subrahmanya Sar Mokkapati

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Energy and Material

Santosh Pandit

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

JinHo Kim

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Anders Mårtensson

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Martin Lovmar

Wellspect Healthcare

Fredrik Westerlund

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Chemical Biology

Ivan Mijakovic

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Royal Society Open Science

2054-5703 (eISSN)

Vol. 5 11 181083

Subject Categories

Infectious Medicine

Microbiology

Microbiology in the medical area

DOI

10.1098/rsos.181083

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8/7/2023 8