Fig. 10

Antimicrobial and antibiofilm action mechanism of the experimental adhesive developed in this work. Graphene is known to be an anti-adhesion material. GO are well-known antimicrobial materials thanks to the shape and to the presence of oxygen containing functional groups that increase its hydrophilicity and allow ROS production. GNPs possess biocidal properties typical of 2D-shaped graphene based materials and anti-adhesion properties typical of graphene thanks to the absence of basal plane functional groups. Moreover, GNPs do not produce ROS due to the absence of oxygen reacting species, and consequently are characterized by a much lower potential of cytotoxicity when compared with GOs