Antifouling Coatings: Recent Developments in the Design of Surfaces That Prevent Fouling by Proteins, Bacteria, and Marine Organisms

Abstract

The major strategies for designing surfaces that prevent fouling due to proteins, bacteria, and marine organisms are reviewed. Biofouling is of great concern in numerous applications ranging from biosensors to biomedical implants and devices, and from food packaging to industrial and marine equipment. The two major approaches to combat surface fouling are based on either preventing biofoulants from attaching or degrading them. One of the key strategies for imparting adhesion resistance involves the functionalization of surfaces with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) or oligo(ethylene glycol). Several alternatives to PEG-based coatings have also been designed over the past decade. While protein-resistant coatings may also resist bacterial attachment and subsequent biofilm formation, in order to overcome the fouling-mediated risk of bacterial infection it is highly desirable to design coatings that are bactericidal. Traditional techniques involve the design of coatings that release biocidal agents, including antibiotics, quaternary ammonium salts (QAS), and silver, into the surrounding aqueous environment. However, the emergence of antibiotic- and silver-resistant pathogenic strains has necessitated the development of alternative strategies. Therefore, other techniques based on the use of polycations, enzymes, nanomaterials, and photoactive agents are being investigated. With regard to marine antifouling coatings, restrictions on the use of biocide-releasing coatings have made the generation of nontoxic antifouling surfaces more important. While considerable progress has been made in the design of antifouling coatings, ongoing research in this area should result in the development of even better antifouling materials in the future.

Tunable conjugated polymers for bacterial differentiation

“…Many factors affect bacterial adhesion to a surface, including the properties of the surface material, environmental conditions and also the bacterial cell surface properties, and this makes it a complex and multifactorial phenomenon [40,[54][55][56][57][58]. Bacterial cell attachment to a surface is generally described by two stages; initial attachment, which is rapid and reversible and involves physicochemical interactions between bacterial cell surfaces and the material surfaces, and non-reversible attachment, which involves specific and non-specific interactions between proteins on the bacterial surface structures and binding molecules on the material surface, as well as physicochemical interactions [59,60].…”

Small-molecule-hosting nanocomposite films with multiple bacteria-triggered responses

“…To alleviate this problem, a number of approaches 15 have been proposed to modify surfaces with polymer coatings that are anti-adhesive, 16,17 kill bacteria on contact, 18 elute antimicrobial compounds with time 19 or provide antibacterial protection through enzymatic degradation of a biofilm matrix. 20 The assembly of surface coatings via LbL deposition enables the inclusion of a broad range of components within conformal coatings and has been explored to construct contact-killing 21 or release-killing films.…”

Biofouling: lessons from nature

“…Banerjee et al [40] cayenne pepper deterrent pepper with silicone grease Manov et al [130] shark skin replicas [135][136][137]. A riblet optimization review paper suggests that a blade riblet height divided by the spacing equalling 0.5 is optimal for drag reduction, regardless of riblet length [34].…”

“…Antibiotics are usually ineffective against biofilms, which leads to difficulties treating biofilm-induced medical conditions such as cystic fibrosis [56]. Furthermore, protein fouling on biological implants reduces efficiency and may lead to thrombosis (blood clots) [40].…”