Biofouling: lessons from nature

Bixler, Gregory D.; Bhushan, Bharat

doi:10.1098/rsta.2011.0502

Cited by 474 publications

(378 citation statements)

References 123 publications

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“…Consequently, active fluids display fascinating phenomena not seen in passive fluids, such as spontaneous flows 8 , anomalous shear viscosities 7,14 , unusual polymer swelling 15,16 , and enhanced fluid mixing [17][18][19][20] . Active fluids also play important roles in varied biological and ecological settings, which include the contributions of suspensions of microorganisms to biofilm infections 21,22 , biofouling of water-treatment systems 23 , and biodegradation of environmental pollutants 24 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle diffusion in active fluids is non-monotonic in size

et al. 2016

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We experimentally investigate the effect of particle size on the motion of passive polystyrene spheres in suspensions of Escherichia coli. Using particles covering a range of sizes from 0.6 to 39 microns, we probe particle dynamics at both short and long time scales. In all cases, the particles exhibit super-diffusive ballistic behavior at short times before eventually transitioning to diffusive behavior. Surprisingly, we find a regime in which larger particles can diffuse faster than smaller particles: the particle long-time effective diffusivity exhibits a peak in particle size, which is a deviation from classical thermal diffusion. We also find that the active contribution to particle diffusion is controlled by a dimensionless parameter, the Péclet number. A minimal model qualitatively explains the existence of the effective diffusivity peak and its dependence on bacterial concentration. Our results have broad implications on characterizing active fluids using concepts drawn from classical thermodynamics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle diffusion in active fluids is non-monotonic in size

et al. 2016

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“…It could be interpreted that these allelopathic compounds are highly active against both types of plants but The microfouling of a surface involves contributions from both microalgae and marine bacteria 44 and can induce a considerable increase in drag as well as biocorrosion. 45,46 Ten strains of marine bacteria involved in biofouling were tested against the compound library and results are presented in Table 3. Only the inhibitory effect on bacterial growth ("G" in the Table 3.)…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevention of Marine Biofouling Using the Natural Allelopathic Compound Batatasin-III and Synthetic Analogues

Moodie¹,

Trépos

Cervin

et al. 2017

J. Nat. Prod.

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The current study reports the first comprehensive evaluation of a class of allelopathic terrestrial natural products as antifoulants in a marine setting. To investigate the antifouling potential of the natural dihydrostilbene scaffold, a library of 22 synthetic dihydrostilbenes with varying substitution patterns, many of which occur naturally in terrestrial plants, were prepared and assessed for their antifouling capacity. The compounds were evaluated in an extensive screen against 16 fouling marine organisms. The dihydrostilbene scaffold was shown to possess powerful general antifouling effects against both marine microfoulers and macrofoulers with inhibitory activities at low concentrations. The species of microalgae examined displayed a particular sensitivity toward the evaluated compounds at low ng/mL concentrations. It was shown that several of the natural and synthetic compounds exerted their repelling activities via nontoxic and reversible mechanisms. The activities of the most active compounds such as 3,5-dimethoxybibenzyl (5), 3,4-dimethoxybibenzyl (9), and 3-hydroxy-3′,4,5′-trimethoxybibenzyl (20) were comparable to the commercial antifouling booster biocide Sea-nine, which was employed as a positive control. The investigation of terrestrial allelopathic natural products to counter marine fouling represents a novel strategy for the design of “green” antifouling technologies, and these compounds offer a potential alternative to traditional biocidal antifoulants.

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“…In MD, the superhydrophobic modification can retard fouling through either introducing an air gap between liquid and membrane surface [76] or reducing liquid membrane contact area [53], which minimizes the foulant attachments to the surface. Changing the surface wettability towards superhydrophilicity in order to form a hydration layer on the membrane surface is another antifouling strategy proposed recently [7]. A common approach to obtain superhydrophilic surfaces is by immobilization of nanoparticles featuring hydrophilic groups (e.g.…”

Section: Bioinspired Antifouling Coatingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodesalination—On harnessing the potential of nature’s desalination processes

et al. 2016

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Water scarcity is now one of the major global crises, which has affected many aspects of human health, industrial development and ecosystem stability. To overcome this issue, water desalination has been employed. It is a process to remove salt and other minerals from saline water, and it covers a variety of approaches from traditional distillation to the well-established reverse osmosis. Although current water desalination methods can effectively provide fresh water, they are becoming increasingly controversial due to their adverse environmental impacts including high energy intensity and highly concentrated brine waste. For millions of years, microorganisms, the masters of adaptation, have survived on Earth without the excessive use of energy and resources or compromising their ambient environment. This has encouraged scientists to study the possibility of using biological processes for seawater desalination and the field has been exponentially growing ever since. Here, the term biodesalination is offered to cover all of the techniques which have their roots in biology for producing fresh water from saline solution. In addition to reviewing and categorizing biodesalination processes for the first time, this review also reveals unexplored research areas in biodesalination having potential to be used in water treatment.

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Biofouling: lessons from nature

Cited by 474 publications

References 123 publications

Particle diffusion in active fluids is non-monotonic in size

Particle diffusion in active fluids is non-monotonic in size

Prevention of Marine Biofouling Using the Natural Allelopathic Compound Batatasin-III and Synthetic Analogues

Biodesalination—On harnessing the potential of nature’s desalination processes

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