Exploration of GO-CuO nanocomposite for its antibacterial properties and potential application as a chemosensor in the sensing of L-Leucine

Abstract

Graphene known as the wonder material and finds its utilization in various applications including sensors.This work reports the solvothermal route and the chemical reflux method synthesis of graphene oxide copper oxide nanocomposite material (GO-CuO). The hitherto prepared GO-CuO nanocomposite was well characterized using the usual spectroscopic and microscopic technique such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis Spectroscopy (UV), Photoluminescence Spectroscopy(PL) etc. The prepared GO-CuO nanocomposite was found to selectively bind to L-Leucine without any interference from the other naturally occurring L-amino acids as a potential fluorescent chemosensor. The interference studies, effect of time, effect of pH and various equivalence studies were also performed for the GO-CuO nanocomposite with L-Leucine. The antibacterial activity of GO-CuO nanocomposite revealed a minimum inhibitory zone concentration for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus to be 200 μg/ml, whereas for A. baumannii it was found to be 100 μg/ml.

Keywords:

• Graphene oxide
• CuO
• fluorescence
• chemosensor
• L-Leucine
• anti-bacterial

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the SERB-EMR grant by the DST (Sanction No. SERB-EMR/2016/005692). We thank Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences for providing us the Karunya short term research grant and supporting us in utilizing the characterization techniques like SEM and XRD.