Catalytic performance and antibacterial behaviour with molecular docking analysis of silver and polyacrylic acid doped graphene quantum dots

In this research, a fixed concentration (3 wt%) of Ag/PAA and PAA/Ag doped graphene quantum dots (GQDs) were synthesized using the co-precipitation technique. A variety of characterization techniques were employed to synthesize samples to investigate their optical, morphological, structural, and compositional analyses, antimicrobial efficacy, and dye degradation potential with molecular docking analysis. GQDs have high solubility, narrow band gaps, and are suitable for electron acceptors and donors but show less adsorption and catalytic behavior. Incorporating polyacrylic acid (PAA) into GQDs increases the catalytic and antibacterial activities due to the carboxylic group (–COOH). Furthermore, introducing silver (Ag) increased the degradation of dye and microbes as it had a high surface-to-volume ratio. In addition, molecular docking studies were used to decipher the mechanism underlying the bactericidal action of silver and polyacrylic acid-doped graphene quantum dots and revealed inhibition of β-lactamase and DNA gyrase.