| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Biological, Organic, and Soft Materials Focus Topic | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session BO-TuP |
| Session: | Biological, Organic, and Soft Materials Focus Topic Poster Session |
| Presenter: | X. Cao, University of Heidelberg, Germany |
| Authors: | X. Cao, University of Heidelberg, Germany F. Wode, University of Heidelberg, Germany A. Rosenhahn, University of Heidelberg, Germany M. Grunze, University of Heidelberg, Germany J. Fu, Zhejiang University, P.R. China J. Ji, Zhejiang University, P.R. China J. Shen, Zhejiang University, P.R. China F. Leisten, University of Hannover, Germany R. Mutton, University of Newcastle, UK C. Sheelagh, University of Newcastle, UK A. Clare, University of Newcastle, UK M. Pettitt, University of Birmingham, UK M. Callow, University of Birmingham, UK |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
In the search for new coatings to protect surfaces from biofouling in marine environments the surface morphology is one important variable. In order to study the influence of different structure sizes, bioinspired polyelectrolyte multilayer coatings were applied and their effect on the settlement of Ulva linza zoospores and Barnacle cyprids was studied. The multilayers were constructed by the deposition of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes through layer-by-layer deposition. Hierarchical surface structures with different texture sizes and roughnesses were obtained by adjusting the preparation conditions. Surface characterization was carried out by contact angle measurement, spectral ellipsometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and confocal microscopy to quantify wetting properties, coverage, chemistry, lateral size and aspect ratio of the topographical features. We discuss how variation of the salt concentration changes resulting morphologies. Settlement of Ulva spores and Barnacle cyprids was significantly affected by texture size and roughness. We compare the effect of topography on biofouling with the surface properties and the contact area for the different organisms. Surface modifications with fluorinated silane and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) combine the effects of chemistry and topography. Fluorinated, hydrophobic multilayers exhibited higher settlement than the uncoated polyelectrolyte surfaces for Ulva and reduced settlement for barnacle cyprids, while for PEG coated hydrophilic surfaces the anti-fouling performance was drastically enhanced.