| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Marine Biofouling Focus Topic | Monday Sessions |
| Session MB-MoM |
| Session: | Interfacial Aspects of Marine Biofouling |
| Presenter: | Alex Wu, The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Authors: | A. Wu, The University of Melbourne, Australia R. Lamb, The University of Melbourne, Australia A. McDonald, The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The effect of minute changes in nanoengineered superhydrophobic surfaces on the attachment behaviour of several fouling species (Amphora sp., Ulva rigida, Bugula neritina) was investigated.
Superhydrophobic surfaces were fabricated from latex-templated silica sol-gels1. Nanoscale features of the surfaces were varied using two building blocks; silica nanoparticles ranging from 7 – 40 nm and PMMA templating latex ranging from 400 – 800 nm. The combination of these building blocks affords various roughness changes at the nanoscale. In maintaing surface chemistry identical, all fabricated surfaces exhibited superhydrophobic characteristics.
Attachment assays of each surface were conducted and a large variation in attachment-inhibition behaviour was observed. Correlating this behaviour against measured AFM roughness suggests that an intricate relationship exists between surface roughness and attachment behaviour. Data indicate that surface fabricated using small nanoparticles (7 nm) coupled with large templating latexes and high RMS roughness (> 130 nm) exhibited significant attachment inhibiting behaviour. This set of criteria also conforms to the definition of a fractal surface, where self-similarity is present different length scales.
Coupled with previous work2 that linked pseudo-fractal dimension with nanowetting, this work strongly suggests that resistance to nanowetting has a key influence on attachment of marine organisms.
1 Cho, K. L., Wu, A. H. F., Lamb, R. N. & Liaw, I. I. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 114, 11228-11233, (2010).
2 Zhang, H., Lamb, R. N. & Cookson, D. J. Applied Physics Letters 91, 254106, (2007).