Paper BI-MoM6
Dynamic Accumulation Assays under Laminar Flow Conditions to Probe Attachment of Marine Biofilm Formers
Monday, October 30, 2017, 10:00 am, Room 12
Novel materials with environmentally benign fouling-release properties have been developed during the last years to substitute toxic coatings. Assessment of fouling-release coating's efficiency is of key relevance for the down selection of chemistries. Several techniques are accessible that quantify, how easy fouling organisms can be removed, including calibrated, turbulent flow channels, push-off tests, water jets, and microfluidic devices [1, 2]. We developed a laboratory assay based on a parallel plate flow chamber that allows testing of coating candidates against algal cell adhesion with precisely controlled flow rates and cell concentrations. Using self-assembled monolayers as model surfaces and diatoms as model organisms we were able to show that the adhesion strength [1] correlates with the accumulation dynamics if an appropriate wall shear stress is applied. Similar to the critical wall shear stress for removal assays, a range of wall shear stresses was identified within which the discrimination potential was maximized [3]. The setup has been parallelized to increase throughput and to become able to test a large number of coating chemistries per day. Due to the modular assembly of our setups, not only model surfaces and thin organic films, but also practical coatings can be tested.
[1] M. Alles, A. Rosenhahn, Biofouling. 2015, 31, 469–480.
[2] MP. Schultz, et al., Biofouling. 2000, 15, 243-251.
[3] K. Nolte, J. Schwarze, A. Rosenhahn Biofouling. 2017, in press