Graphene oxide (GO) is the oxidized version of graphene with defects and oxygen functional groups on the surface of graphene sheets. The oxidation of natural graphite was performed using a well-established procedure, modified Hummers method, with modifications to synthesize GO in gram quantities. Because of the readily available oxygen functional groups, such as carboxyl, carbonyl, epoxy and alkoxy, GO is well soluble in water with simple sonication. Our previous studies showed that bacteria cells, such as E.coli. proliferated on GO flakes effectively.  GO was tested as a nanomaterial for use it as a medium for filters to remove microorganisms in diesel fuel. Our experiments showed that GO is an efficient nanomaterial, which can be used as a medium to capture bacteria cells in diesel fuel. We tested green fluoresce expressed E.coli. bacteria in jet fuel for these experiments because they are easy to characterize using microscopy techniques. In addition, we tested our GO filters for Gordonia bacteria, which is considered as microorganism lives in the diesel fuel. The characterization using different microcopy techniques showed that GO can filter out effectively both E. coli. and Gordonia bacteria cells in diesel fuel. In addition, we tested metal decorated GO as a possible antibacterial agents to destroy the microorganisms. Furthermore, we studied a chemical approach to clean the contaminated GO with bacteria cells and diesel fuel after using it for filters. Because the synthesis of quality GO with desired purity and oxygen functionality is a time consuming and labor-intensive process. Therefore, recycling of used GO without changing it’s chemical properties is important to manufacture a cost effective filters. Synthesis of GO, antibacterial properties of metal decorated GO, chemical approach to clean the used GO and characterization of these materials will be discussed.

Graphene oxide as a filter medium to capture microorganisms in jet fuels and antibacterial properties of metal nanoparticles

ACS Spring 2022

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