Bactericidal Action and Industrial Dye Degradation of Graphene Oxide and Polyacrylic Acid-Doped SnO 2 Quantum Dots: In Silico Molecular Docking Study.

The present work demonstrates the systematic incorporation of different concentrations of graphene oxide (GO) into a fixed amount of polyacrylic acid (PAA)-doped SnO 2 quantum dots (QDs) through a co-precipitation approach. The research aimed to evaluate the catalytic and antibacterial actions of GO/PAA-SnO 2 QDs. Moreover, optical properties, surface morphologies, crystal structures, elemental compositions, and d-spacings of prepared QDs were examined. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the tetragonal configuration of SnO 2 , and the crystallinity of QDs was suppressed upon dopants verified by the SAED patterns. Electronic spectra identified the blue shift by incorporating GO and PAA led to a reduction in band gap energy. Fourier transform infrared spectra showed the existence of rotational and vibrational modes associated with the functional groups during the synthesis process. A drastic increase in the catalytic efficacy of QDs was observed in the neutral medium by including dopants, indicating that GO/PAA-SnO 2 is a promising catalyst. GO/PAA-SnO 2 showed strong bactericidal efficacy against Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) at higher GO concentrations. Molecular docking studies predicted the given nanocomposites, i.e., SnO 2 , PAA-SnO 2 , and GO/PAA-SnO 2 , as potential inhibitors of beta-lactamase E. coli and DNA gyrase E. coli .