Critical to the development of antifouling coatings technologies for biomedical and aquatic applications is the coupling of effective materials and functional chemistries with coating fabrication techniques, providing a clear avenue for the application of these coatings to industrially relevant processes.  One approach that is gaining increasing interest is the application of nanomaterials to generate antimicrobial interfaces. Nanomaterials can be employed to provide specific functionality to the coating interface (i.e. catalytic interfaces), they can be modified to present appropriate surface chemistries at the material interface, and the coating fabrication method may be tailored to generate specific interfacial topographies and surface morphologies.  In this talk we present silica nanoparticles as a highly tuneable coating system through which nanopartricle size and surface functionality, generated through the tethering of various chemistries using silane chemistry, can be tailored to enable control over the nano- and micro-interfacial properties of nanoparticle coatings.  Through modifying silica nanoparticles with hydrophilic chemistries (e.g. poly(ethylene glycol and zwitterions), we show the coatings comprised of functionalised silica nanoparticles are highly effective at resisting adsorption from organics, and adhesion and colonisation by microbial organisms. We also demonstrate this nanoparticle system to be highly amenable to a range of fabrication technologies, such as spray coating and inkjet printing, and demonstrate the use of these materials as fouling resistant coatings on a range of substrates such as stainless steel surfaces.

Functionalised silica nanoparticles as fouling resistant surface coatings

254th National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.