Table 1 Antibacterial activity of graphene family materials

GO and rGO

Vacuum filtration

E. coli (G-)

rGO possessed antibacterial properties that were only slightly lower than those of GO, while their cytotoxicity was significantly higher than GO’s.

[153]

rGO and GO

Electrophoretic deposition method

E. coli (G-) S. aureus (G+)

1. E. coli bacteria with an outer membrane were more resistant to the cell membrane damage caused by the GO and rGO than S. aureus lacking the outer membrane.

2. The rGO exhibited stronger toxicity against two bacteria than the GO.

[154]

Graphite, graphite oxide, GO, rGO

E. coli (G-)

1. Antibacterial activity: GO > rGO > graphite > graphite oxide

[60]

Monolayer graphene film

Conductor Cu semiconductor Ge insulator SiO2

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD)

E. coli (G-) S. aureus (G+)

1. Graphene@Cu and Graphene@Ge can surprisingly inhibit the growth of both bacteria, especially the former.

2. The proliferation of both bacteria cannot be significantly restricted by the graphene film on SiO2.

[62]

Bare GO sheets

Modified Hummers’ method

E. coli (G-) B. subtilis (G+)

1. Bare GO sheets indeed kill bacteria.

2. Masking GO sheets basal planes via noncovalent adsorption resulted in GO inactive against bacteria.

[155]

GO

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)

Langmui–Blodgett (LB) technique

E. coli (G-)

1. Antibacterial activity was layer dependent.

2. Contacting with the edges was not a fundamental part of GO’s antimicrobial mechanism.

[61]

GO

E. coli (G-)

The smaller-sized GO sheet increased the antimicrobial activity of the material.

[156]

rGO

l-cysteine (Cys) modified Ag

Mix

E. coli (G-) S. aureus (G+)

This nanocomposite showed excellent electrocatalytic activity against glucose and bactericidal property against E. coli and S. aureus (MIC:0.3 mg/ml and MBC:0.6 mg/ml).

[157]

Multi-layer-numbers GO

Pure titanium plates

Colloidal dispersion

E. coli (G-) S. aureus (G+)

Increasing the layer-number of graphene oxide resulted in the augment of ROS levels and the wrinkling, which led to the bacteria inhibition.

[118]

GO sheets; rGO sheets

Titanium foil

Evaporation-assisted electrostatic assembly and one-pot assembly

S. aureus (G+)

Both types of layer showed good antibacterial activity whereby around 50% anti-adhesion effects and considerable anti-biofilm activities were observed.

[120]

GO-Ag nanohybrid

Bacterial cellulose (BC)

GO-Ag nanohybrid synthesis via Response Surface Methodology

E. coli (G-) S. aureus (G+)

1. GO-Ag nanohybrid exhibited synergistically strong antibacterial activities at rather low dose.

2. GO-Ag nanohybrid is more toxic to E. coli than that to S. aureus.

[158]

GO

Polydopamine (PDA) modified porous Ti scaffolds

A new drug delivery system (BMP-2; vancomycin (Van))

S. epidermidis (G+)

GO/Ti scaffold encapsulated with Van inhibited the proliferation of S. epidermidis to a large extent, compared to that of scaffolds without Van.

[149]

GO

Silicone rubber sheets

The activated sheets were immersed into the GO dispersion.

E. coli (G-) S. aureus (G+)

The GO coatings caused a significant viability loss up to 85.8% for E. coli and 72.4% for S. aureus, showing stronger antibacterial activity against E. coli bacteria than their activities against S. aureus bacteria.

[159]

GO

Metallic films, such as Zn, Ni, Sn, and steel

E. coli (G-)

It is also found that such activities are directly correlated to the electrical conductivity of the GO-metal systems; the higher the conductivity the better is the antibacterial activity.

[63]