| AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Biomaterials Plenary Session | Sunday Sessions |
| Session BP-SuA |
| Session: | Plenary - Engineering a Paradigm Shift in Control of Microbes and Fouling: In Honor of Michael Grunze's 70th Birthday |
| Presenter: | Michael Grunze, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Biofouling, i.e. the settlement and colonization of bacteria and spores on surfaces is a major economic and environmental problem. Besides the obvious problems which biofouling causes in the clinical environment, biofouling is a serious problem also in food processing, aquacultures, shipping, underwater structures and ship hulls, heat exchangers, and buildings in tropical environments. The common—but environmentally extremely problematic—way to deal with biofouling is to incorporate heavy metals and/or biocides to kill the colonizing organisms. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop environmental benign stable and long lasting coatings to prevent biofouling.
The biofouling environment consists of multiple and often cooperatively interacting species of various sizes. Significant differences in the initial settlement behavior of bacteria, spores, larvae, and diatoms are observed on different chemical surface compositions, but the continuous deposition of dissolved macromolecules and polymers on “inert chemistries” leads to a “conditioning film” which soon renders any chemical modification of the surface ineffective. Topographic structures on surfaces change the macroscopic properties such as their wetting behavior, but also have a pronounced effect on how single cells and organisms attach, settle, and proliferate on the substrate. Both the enhancement of settlement, such as in cell cultures, but also the suppression of settlement can be the outcome of surface structuring. Promising are slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) which have been reported for their remarkable initial antifouling properties. However, their long-term stability against fouling is compromised by unavoidable defects in the SLIPS surface, and the slow deposition of a conditioning film.
In this presentation, I discuss if present research and development approaches are successful in creating lasting non-toxic non-fouling coatings for artificial surfaces. I will outline the different concepts to fouling prevention, and the challenges and technical difficulties encountered to realize long term stability and efficiency against fouling.