| AVS 54th International Symposium | |
| Marine Biofouling Topical Conference | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session MB+BI-TuP |
| Session: | Marine Biofouling Poster Session |
| Presenter: | T. Ekblad, Linköping University, Sweden |
| Authors: | T. Ekblad, Linköping University, Sweden G. Bergström, Linköping University, Sweden C.-X. Du, Linköping University, Sweden T. Ederth, Linköping University, Sweden B. Liedberg, Linköping University, Sweden |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
This work describes the fabrication, characterization and biological evaluation of homogeneous and patterned hydrogel films, used as model coatings in anti-fouling experiments. The work is a part of an EC-initiative on Advanced Nanostructured Surfaces for the Control of Biofouling, AMBIO. The hydrogels consist of poly(ethylene glycol)-containing methacrylate monomers that are UV-grafted onto solid supports, e.g. silanized glass. The physical and chemical properties of these films have been studied using ellipsometry, FT-IR, AFM and a range of other surface characterization techniques. A key property of the hydrogels is that they appear to be resistant to protein adsorption from complex biofluids, including plasma and serum.1 These observations encouraged us to test the hydrogels as anti-fouling surfaces. Hydrogels, ca. 30 nm thick, were prepared and evaluated in settlement and removal assays using a range of organisms, including barnacle cyprids of the species Balanus amphitrite, Ulva linza zoospores, Navicula diatoms and the three bacteria species Cobetia marina, Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus and Pseudomonas fluorescens. It is clear from the results that the hydrogel surfaces display excellent antifouling properties. All tested organisms displayed significantly reduced settlement compared to reference coatings. The removal of settled organisms generally appeared to be less affected by the surface coating. Though the relationship is not yet confirmed, this study demonstrates that a surface with low protein adsorption also can have advantageous anti-biofouling properties. The broad-spectrum effect of the hydrogel coating does undoubtedly imply that the selected poly(ethylene glycol) chemistry acts on a fundamental stage in the settlement process of biologically diverse organisms. This stage may be the adsorption of biomolecules from glues released by the settling organisms.
1 A. Larsson, T. Ekblad, O. Andersson, B. Liedberg, Biomacromolecules 2007, 8, 287-295.