Identifying the Efficacy of the Solutions That Kill Bacteria: A Biology Experiment

Title

Graphene-Based Photothermal Composites as Antibacterial Agents

Purpose

Comparing the efficiency of graphene-based photothermal composites in killing bacteria to the effects of traditional antibiotic agents and defining the reasons for the outcomes.

Hypothesis

It is assumed that graphene-based photothermal composites (GBPC) are more efficient in killing bacteria and disinfecting a specific area due to their properties such as the near-infrared absorbance (Garg, Bisht, and Ling 14155). The specified characteristics of GBPC, therefore, make them more efficient compared to the traditional antibacterial tools (Grurnathan et al. 5903).

Materials

Petri dish, Pasteur pipette, test tubes, volumetric pipette, droppers.

Procedure

1. The Petri dishes are sanitized with the help of boiling water.
2. The Petri dishes are cooled down to the room temperature so that the required conditions for growing bacteria could be created (Nguyen 88).
3. Antiseptic discs are created by soaking disks made of paper towel in GBPC and the agent used typically for antiseptic procedures.
4. The sterilized water, once cooling down, is transported into a beaker.
5. The test tubes are filled with sterilized water.
6. The required amount of GBPC and the other agent are measured and contained with the help of a volumetric pipette.
7. Bacteria are introduced to the environment created in Petri dishes with the help of Pasteur pipettes. Alternatively, droppers may be used for the specified procedure (Pavia, Criz, and Lampman 617).
8. The Petri dishes are contained in the environment of roughly 100° F for several days so that the bacteria could grow and that the quality of the sanitation processes carried out could be assessed correspondingly.
9. The halo that the dishes contain is evaluated carefully, and the corresponding conclusions regarding the efficacy of each method of disinfection are made (Florencio, Couri, and Farinas 2).
10. The experiment is ended, and the bacteria in the Petri dishes are disposed of with the help of the GBPC agent.

Expected Results

It is expected that the experiment will display a complete superiority of GBPC to the traditional antibacterial agents. Particularly, it is assumed that no bacteria will evolve in the Petri dish after the introduction of the bacteria culture to the GBPC agents. As the newspaper article “Nanoparticles; Findings on Nanoparticles Reported by Investigators at Nanjing Agricultural University (Graphene-Based Nanocomposite as an Effective, Multifunctional, and Recyclable Antibacterial Agent)” (94) explains, the use of the specified antibacterial tools allows for photothermal treatment of the bacteria in question. Seeing that the latter are susceptible to changes in temperature and, therefore, will be unable to thrive in the specified environment, a complete absence of bacteria after the introduction of the bacteria culture in the Petri dish to GBPC is expected.

Conclusion

Providing clean environment that does not expose the participants and the subjects of an experiment to bacteria and other factors that pose a threat to the health of the people involved as well as to the success of the experiment is essential (Georgakilas 214). The number of colonies will be used as the measurement unit. The use of traditional antiseptics, in its turn, may be viewed as a supplementary tool in promoting the required sanitary conditions, yet the emphasis should clearly lie in the use of GBPC. The experiment in question can be deemed as fairly important, as it will shed some light on the efficacy of the current antiseptic tools and provide new methods of sanitizing the environment. Therefore, numerous health issues may be prevented with the help of GBPC.

References

Florencio, Camila, Sonia Couri, and Cristiane Sanchez Farinas. “Correlation between Agar Plate Screening and Solid-State Fermentation for the Prediction of Cellulase Production by Trichoderma Strains.” Enzyme Research 212.1 (2012): 1–7. Print.

Garg, Bhaskar, Tanuja Bisht, and Yong-Chien Ling. “Graphene-Based Nanomaterials as Efficient Peroxidase Mimetic Catalysts for Biosensing Applications: An Overview.” Molecules 20.8 (2015): 14155-14190. Print.

Georgakilas, Vasilios. Functionalization of Graphene. New York City, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2014. Print.

Nanoparticles; Findings on Nanoparticles Reported by Investigators at Nanjing Agricultural University (Graphene-Based Nanocomposite as an Effective, Multifunctional, and Recyclable Antibacterial Agent) Life Science Weekly 2014: 94. News RX. Web.

Nguyen, Minh Thanh. “The Effect of Temperature on the Growth of the Bacteria Escherichia coli DH5α.” Saint Martin’s University Biology Journal 1.1 (2006): 87–94. Print.

Pavia, Donald, George Kriz, and Gary Lampman. A Microscale Approach to Organic Laboratory Techniques. Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.