Bio Focus: Slippery liquid-infused porous surface coating on steel resists biofouling
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lubricant and TO. Importantly, the lubricating liquid is nontoxic, and there are US Slippery liquid-infused porous Food and Drug Administration approved surface coating on steel resists biofouling formulations. TO-SLIPS surfaces resisted blood odification of durable materials staining as well as bacterial adhesion (E. such as steel to resist biofouling coli) and algae buildup (C. reinhardtii), and corrosion in marine and medical apbut not through toxic effects. Bacterial plications has been notoriously difficult. and algal biofilms could grow upon horiRecently, a team led by Joanna Aizenberg zontally oriented, static surfaces; howof Harvard University and including ever, as soon as a shear force was applied Philseok Kim of SLIPS Technologies, by agitation or gravitationally, by tilting Inc. has developed a method for coating the film, the organic matter slid off due to steel with a slippery liquid-infused poextremely poor adhesion to the surface. rous surface (SLIPS) that is both durable Moreover, these surfaces performed and exceedingly resistant to fouling. The significantly better than structured group grew tungsten oxide nanostructures TO surfaces that were superhydrophobic upon the steel, subsequently chemically (TO-SHS), but were not infused with the functionalizing and infusing the pores liquid lubricating layer (Figure b). This is with lubricating liquid, according to because porous superhydrophobic surfaces the report published in a recent issue of resist wetting by entrapping air pockets, Nature Communications (DOI:10.1038/ minimizing contact area between water ncomms9649). (or other applied liquid) and the solid. “SLIPS consists of a structured solid However, once water displaces these air that captures a lubricant (which could be pockets, the surface can wet. “Then the jig water, oil, or another liquid) to create a slipis up,” notes Kim, as “bacteria probe and pery interface,” according to Aizenberg. eventually penetrate this aqueous layer, The “slipperiness” arises because the locking themselves into the crevices of the textured substrate.” In contrast, “in the case of SLIPS,” Aizenberg explains, “the solid is shielded and protected. On c b d a moving, liquid-coated—or on a very soft—substrate, bacteria cannot attach.” a Many applications could benefit from this type of technology: “Medical tools such as needles and scalpels need to be durable, while resisting fouling by blood or bacteria,” Aizenberg says. Moreover, WO3 Kim’s company is working to apply durable SLIPS coatSt.St. ings to other metals such as titanium, copper, and particularly aluminum, which could be used for anti-icing refrigerator coils. This new class of multifunctional coatings that are both mechanically (a) Scanning electron microscope image of a porous tungsten oxide (TO) layer grown on a stainless steel (St.St.) durable and antifouling is a substrate. Scale bar = 200 nm. (b–d) St.St. sample with algae biofilms. Under static culture, algae grows on all triumph for bioinspired matethe samples (top row); however, when removed from cu
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