Graphene oxide nanoparticles synthesized from waste tires: A multi-faceted analysis of structure, morphology and antibacterial behavior

In recent years, the sustainable utilization of waste materials has become a significant research area due to environmental concerns and resource scarcity. Graphene oxide nanoparticles (GONPs) are regarded as one of the most important materials due to their capacity to serve as a potentially scalable precursor to graphene and, more recently, as the most promising substance in biomedical research. This study successfully explores the synthesis of GONPs using recovered carbon black (rCB) derived from waste tires. The structural, morphological and antibacterial properties of the synthesised GONPs in this study were highlighted. The intensity ratio (I_D/I_G) from Raman spectroscopy analysis, obtained at 0.82, with FTIR spectral results shows the functional groups of hydroxyl, carboxyl and epoxy, similar to GO synthesised from pure graphite. TEM analysis showed that the surface morphology of the GONPs contains nanoparticles with a size of 44.95 nm. Despite using waste material, GONPs exhibited potential antibacterial activity towards the gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria tested in this study. The data presented here are novel and show the possibility of GONP synthesis from waste tires as a future cost-effective antibacterial agent.