| AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Marine Biofouling Topical Conference | Monday Sessions |
| Session MB+BI+AS-MoA |
| Session: | Preventing & Characterizing Marine Biofouling |
| Presenter: | K.J. Wahl, Naval Research Laboratory |
| Authors: | K.J. Wahl, Naval Research Laboratory D.E. Barlow, Naval Research Laboratory R.K. Everett, Naval Research Laboratory C.M. Spillmann, Naval Research Laboratory G.H. Dickinson, Duke University Marine Laboratory B. Orihuela, Duke University Marine Laboratory D. Rittschof, Duke University Marine Laboratory |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Proteinaceous secretions are widely recognized to be significant contributors to marine biofouling. The resulting interfacial films can be physisorbed or chemisorbed, and have varying degrees of permanency – they may be highly polymerized and cross-linked, or simply sticky enough to allow surface exploration. Conventional approaches to examining interfacial films derived from bioadhesive junctions is forensic in nature – foulant removal (separating the surfaces) followed by ex situ examination of the adhesive composition and surface morphology. While “what” the adhesive is may be gleaned from ex situ approaches, “how” the adhesive is applied and cures cannot. These time dependent changes can’t be examined “after the fact” and instead require real-time measures of interfacial interactions.
At NRL, we have made significant progress in developing in situ methods to demonstrate the chemical, mechanical and rheological processes in interfaces. We are now applying and extending these approaches to examine underwater adhesion in marine organisms, specifically the little striped barnacle, Balanus amphitrite. We are developing in situ and in vivo spectroscopic approaches to determine how protein structure and chemistry influence marine foulant adhesion. We are particularly interested in determining the structure and chemistry of the cement, the biochemical processes influencing polymerization, cross-linking, and water displacement, as well as the physiochemical nature of the adhesion. Our in situ approaches include performing temporally- and spatially-resolved microscopy and spectroscopy through adhesive interfaces transparent at UV, visible, IR, and x-ray wavelengths. I will describe how we have used these tools to develop new understanding of the properties and development of the adhesive interface of barnacles.