Superdurable Coating Fabricated from a Double-Sided Tape with Long Term "Zero" Bacterial Adhesion

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Biotechnology
• Surface Chemistry

Background:

• Biofilm formation poses a significant challenge across various industries, with current antifouling coatings lacking durability and efficacy.
• Existing antifouling technologies often suffer from difficult fabrication, poor adhesion, and limited long-term performance against diverse microbial species.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel, robust, and universally applicable antifouling coating to overcome the limitations of existing technologies.
• To create a super-antifouling coating that effectively prevents microbial adhesion and biofilm formation on common substrates.

Main Methods:

• Development of a durable and ultrarobust antifouling zwitterionic (DURA-Z) coating by combining zwitterionic hydrogel with commercial superglue.
• Application of the DURA-Z coating on various substrates, utilizing superglue for strong immobilization through interpenetration.
• Assessment of coating durability through immersion, shearing, water flushing, and mechanical abrasion tests (knife scratch, sandpaper abrasion at 570 kPa).

Main Results:

• The DURA-Z coating demonstrated exceptional durability, maintaining its antifouling properties after 90 days of water immersion, 50 days of buffer shearing, and 30 days of water flushing.
• The coating exhibited remarkable resistance to mechanical stress, including repeated knife scratching and sandpaper abrasion under significant pressure.
• Achieved long-term biofilm resistance against high concentrations (>10^9 cells mL^-1) of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and fungi for 30 days, with near-zero microbe adhesion.

Conclusions:

• The developed DURA-Z coating offers a robust and effective solution to the persistent problem of biofilm formation.
• This technology addresses critical challenges in antifouling coatings, including fabrication, efficacy, toughness, and durability, paving the way for practical applications.
• The DURA-Z coating provides a promising platform for long-term microbial control on diverse surfaces.