Environmental biofouling caused by the formation of biofilm has been one of the most urgent global concerns. Silver nanoparticles (NPs), owing to their wide-spectrum antimicrobial property, have been widely explored to combat biofilm, but their extensive use has raised growing concern because they persist in the environment. Here we report a novel hybrid nanocomposite that imparts enhanced antimicrobial activity and low cytotoxicity yet with the advantage of reduced silver loading. The nanocomposite consists of Pt/Ag bimetallic NPs (BNPs) decorated on the porous reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets. We demonstrate that the enhanced antimicrobial property against Escherichia coli is ascribed to the intricate control of the interfaces between metal compositions, rGO matrix, and bacteria, where the BNPs lead to a rapid release of silver ions, and the trapping of bacteria by the porous rGO matrix further provides high concentration silver ion sites for efficient bacteria-bactericide interaction. We envision that our facile approach significantly expands the design space for the creation of silver-based antimicrobial materials to achieve a wide spectrum of functionalities.
Keywords: antimicrobial; bimetallic nanoparticles; galvanic replacement reaction; nanocomposite; reduced graphene oxide.