: Biofouling, Infections, Surfaces, Bacteria
Abstract
Biofouling is a critical problem in health sector, marine industries and is a cause of
severe economic burden. Hospital acquired infections, pandemics and fouling of
marine equipment are some of the drawbacks of biofouling that are being
experienced worldwide. Among various strategies to address this problem, direct
killing of biofilms is the mostly commonly applied approach and sanitization
techniques are utilized to disinfect different surfaces to prevent the transfer of
microbes from one surface to another. Physical and chemical methods of surface
modifications to prepare slippery surfaces have recently been evaluated to
reduce the adsorption of microbes. This study describes the development of
vitamin B5 analogous polymers coated smooth surfaces. The hydrophilic surfaces
prepared are tested for the attachment of bacteria and proteins. Our results
indicate that polymer coated smooth surfaces showed minimal attachment of bacteria
and protein post-modification.