Biofouling on marine surfaces dramatically decreases performance and increases maintenance time and fuel costs. Historically, toxic and environmentally persistent metals (ie. tin and copper) were used to prevent marine biofouling on ship hulls, but have been banned as marine coatings as a result of their serious environmental toxicity. Bacterial biofilms on marine surfaces accumulate within hours or days of being submerged. An environmentally friendly antibiofouling coating was developed using a biomimetic approach to prevent bacterial biofilm formation. Inhibitors of bacterial quorum sensing (ie. kojic acid, gallic acid, N-acyl homoserine lactones) were conjugated with alkoxysilanes and used to coat glass substrates. These substrates were exposed to marine broth inoculated with the marine bacterium <i>Sulfitobacter sp.</i> and slides coated with the quorum sensing inhibitor gallic acid showed a decrease in biofilm density. Alternative biomimetic methods for preventing biofilm formation on marine surfaces are currently under development.

Biomimetic quorum-sensing inhibiting coatings for the prevention of marine biofouling

256th National Meeting (2018)

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