Innovative Graphene Paper Helps Fight Disease-Causing Bacteria

A new study has found that graphene, a material that is a sheet of carbon one atom thick, does not allow the growth of bacteria on its surface.

Researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP; China) studied the antibacterial activity of two water-dispersible graphene derivatives, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO), which were deposited on paper nanosheets. To do so, they manufactured sheets of paper from graphene oxide, and then tried to grow Escherichia coli bacteria and human cells on the manufactured sheets. The researcher found that both graphene-based nanomaterials could effectively inhibit the growth of E. coli bacteria, while showing minimal cytotoxicity towards human cells.


The researchers also demonstrated that macroscopic freestanding GO and rGO paper can be conveniently fabricated from a liquid suspension via a simple vacuum filtration process. Since the superior antibacterial effect of GO, and the fact that GO can be mass-produced and easily processed to make freestanding and flexible paper, the researchers expect that this new carbon nanomaterial may find important environmental and clinical applications, from anti-bacterial bandages, to food packaging that keeps food fresher longer, to shoes that ward off foot odor. The study was published on July 1, 2010, in the American Chemical Society (ACS) journal Nano.

"We demonstrate that macroscopic antibacterial graphene-based paper can be conveniently fabricated with superior inhibition ability to bacteria growth, suggesting the promising environmentally friendly applications of these low-cost and highly effective carbon nanomaterials,” concluded lead author Wenbing Hu, Ph.D., and colleagues of the laboratory of physical biology.

Graphene is essentially a monolayer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional crystal, forming an extremely thin nanomaterial that possesses very high mechanical stiffness and extraordinary electronic transport properties. Various forms of graphene sheets have been actively explored, with novel applications developed such as transistors, solar cells, and sensors. While biological studies of graphene are relatively limited, significant recent attention has been drawn toward interactions between graphene derivatives and bioorganisms.

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Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics