This study aims to provide insights into biofilm resistance associated with their structural properties acquired during formation and development. On this account, the wetting and imbibition behavior of dehydrated Pseudomonas fluorescens biofilms grown on stainless steel electropolished substrates is thoroughly examined at different biofilm ages. A polar liquid (water) and a non-polar liquid (diiodomethane) are employed as wetting agents in the form of sessile droplets. A mathematical model is applied to appraise the wetting and imbibition performance of biofilms incorporating the evaporation of sessile droplets. The present results show that the examined biofilms are hydrophilic. The progressive growth of biofilms leads to a gradual increase of substrate surface coverage�up to full coverage�accompanied by a gradual decrease of biofilm surface roughness. It is noteworthy that just after 24 h of biofilm growth, the surface roughness increases about 6.7 times the roughness of the clean stainless steel surface. It is further found that the imbibition of liquid in the biofilm matrix is restricted only to the biofilm region under the sessile droplet. The lack of further capillary imbibition into the biofilm structure, beyond the droplet deposition region, implies that the biofilm matrix is not in the form of an extended network of interconnected micro/nanopores. All in all, the present results indicate a resilient biofilm structure to biocide penetration despite its hydrophilic nature.
This article deals with the potential to reduce the amount of the residual stresses in the diamond films on cemented carbide inserts for improving their effective interfacial fatigue strength and thus their wear resistance. In this context, nano-crystalline diamond coatings (NCD) were deposited on cemented carbide inserts. A portion of these coated tools were annealed in vacuum for decreasing the amount of residual stresses in the film structure. The annealing temperature was appropriately selected for keeping the substrate strength properties invariable after the coating annealing. Inclined impact tests at ambient temperature on the untreated and heat-treated diamond coated tools were conducted for evaluating their effective interfacial fatigue strength. Depending upon the impact load, after a certain number of impacts, damages in the film-substrate interface develop, resulting in coating detachment and lifting. Via appropriate FEM (Finite Element Method)-evaluation of the impact imprints, the residual stresses in the diamond film structure were determined. Milling experiments were conducted for evaluating the cutting performance of the coated tools using aluminum foam as workpiece material. A correlation between the interfacial fatigue strength of diamond coatings and their residual stresses affected by annealings contributed to the explanation of the attained cutting results.
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