Surface modification and antibacterial activity enhancement of acrylic fabric by coating silver/graphene oxide nanocomposite

In this study, silver/graphene oxide (Ag/GO) nanocomposite was synthesized via the in − situ method using nanocellulose (NCs) obtained from sugarcane bagasse as a reducing agent. The synthesis conditions, including AgNO 3 :NCs mass ratio, temperature, and reaction time, were investigated. The results showed that the suitable condition was 1:1 in the AgNO 3 :NCs mass ratio at 60 °C for 60 min. The results indicated that the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were evenly distributed on the GO sheets with a size of 5 − 30 nm. Besides, the cytotoxicity of the Ag/GO nanocomposite was also assessed with three cell lines, including human embryonic kidney cells (HEK − 293), liver cancer cells (Hep − G2), and lung cancer cells (A549). Ag/GO possesses the ability to inhibit cancer cells of Hep-G2 and A549 with respective IC 50 values of 86.11 ± 1.74 μg/mL and 106.85 ± 2.15 μg/mL. Therewithal, the antibacterial acrylic fabric (AF) was fabricated by dip − coating in an Ag/GO suspension (Ag/GO/AF). The Ag/GO/AF was hydrophobically modified with 5 g/L of stearic acid (Ag/GO/AF − SA) in ethanol solvent for 180 min, resulting in the fabric having high hydrophobicity with a contact angle of 116°. Additionally, the plate diffusion method was used to evaluate the antibacterial activity of fabrics against two strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( P. aeruginosa ) and Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ) bacteria. The results showed that the Ag/GO/AF − SA has an antibacterial ability with a large antibacterial diameter of 24 ± 0.34 mm and 25 ± 0.35 mm for P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, respectively. Moreover, the colorfastness of Ag/GO/AF and Ag/GO/AF − SA also possess high durability.