Abstract
Pathogenic microorganism delays wound-healing process by causing infection. In recent years, researchers have developed various kinds of photo-active nanomaterials with enhanced antibacterial properties. This work focus on the preparation of graphene oxide and TiO2 nanocomposites (GO/TiO2) as a visible light-induced high efficiency antibacterial material. The hydrothermal method was used for the synthesis of GO/TiO2 nanocomposites at 180 oC for 3 h with different loading percentages of GO (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 wt. %). The systematic characterization tools including X-ray diffraction analysis, FT-IR, UV-vis, Raman and TEM which were used to understand the physicochemical properties of the prepared GO/TiO2 nanocomposites. Furthermore, GO/TiO2 nanocomposites were used as photocatalytic active materials against wound infection-causing bacteria in the presence of visible light irradiation. The possible antibacterial mechanism under presence and absence of light were depicted. The antibacterial mechanism of the GO/TiO2 nanocomposite was investigated on wound infection-causing bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Enterococcus faecalis. The high hemocompatibility and the cellular biocompatibility of the nanocomposite aids in using it for wound-healing application. Overall, the results suggest that the GO/TiO2 nanocomposite could be developed as a photo-active nanomaterial against pathogenic microorganisms that are present in wound.
Acknowledgments
The authors Jayabal Prakash and Dr. Gopinath Devanand Venkatasubbu thank SRM Institute of Science and Technology for providing the Micro-Raman, HR-TEM and UV-DRS facilities. Authors are thankful to Dr. N. Sakthivel, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France for his valuable suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).