An official website of the United States government
Fouling of surfaces in prolonged contact with liquid often leads to detrimental alteration of material properties and performance. A wide range of factors which include mass transport, surface properties and surface interactions dictate whether foulants are able to adhere to a surface. Passive means of foulant rejection, such as the microscopic patterns, have been known to develop in nature. In this work, we investigate the anti-fouling behaviour of animal fur and its apparent passive resistance to fouling. We compare the fouling performance of several categories of natural and manufactured fibres, and present correlations between contamination susceptibility and physio-mechanical properties of the fibre and its environment. Lastly, we present a correlation between the fouling intensity of a fibre and the cumulative impact of multiple interacting factors declared in the form of a dimensionless group. Artificial and natural hair strands exhibit comparable anti-fouling behaviour in flow, however, the absence of flow improves the performance of some artificial fibres. Among the plethora of factors affecting the fouling of fur hair, the dimensionless groups we present herein provide the best demarcation between fibres of different origin.
more »
« less
Fur flutter in fluid flow fends off foulers
The fouling of submerged surfaces detrimentally alters stratum properties. Inorganic and organic foulers alike attach to and accumulate on surfaces when the complex interaction between numerous variables governing attachment and colonization is favourable. Unlike naturally evolved solutions, industrial methods of repellence carry adverse environmental impacts. Mammal fur demonstrates high resistance to fouling; however, our understanding of the intricacies of such performance remains limited. Here, we show that the passive trait of fur to dynamically respond to an external flow field dramatically improves its anti-fouling performance over that of fibres rigidly fixed at both ends. We have previously discovered a statistically significant correlation between a group of flow- and stratum-related properties, and the quantified anti-fouling performance of immobile filaments. In this work, we improve the correlation by considering an additional physical factor, the ability of hair to flex. Our work establishes a parametric framework for the design of passive anti-fouling filamentous structures and invites other disciplines to contribute to the investigation of the anti-fouling prowess of mammalian interfaces.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1825801
- PAR ID:
- 10478027
- Publisher / Repository:
- The Royal Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of The Royal Society Interface
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 209
- ISSN:
- 1742-5662
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Marine biofouling is a sticky global problem that hinders maritime industries. Various microscale surface structures inspired by marine biological species have been explored for their anti‐fouling properties. However, systematic studies of anti‐marine‐fouling performance on surface architectures with characteristic length‐scales spanning from below 100 nm to greater than 10 µm are generally lacking. Herein, a study on the rational design and fabrication of ZnO/Al2O3core–shell nanowire architectures with tunable geometries (length, spacing, and branching) and surface chemistry is presented. The ability of the nanowires to significantly delay or prevent marine biofouling is demonstrated. Compared to planar surfaces, hydrophilic nanowires can reduce fouling coverage by up to ≈60% after 20 days. The fouling reduction mechanism is mainly due to two geometric effects: reduced effective settlement area and mechanical cell penetration. Additionally, superhydrophobic nanowires can completely prevent marine biofouling for up to 22 days. The nanowire surfaces are transparent across the visible spectrum, making them applicable to windows and oceanographic sensors. Through the rational control of surface nano‐architectures, the coupled relationships between wettability, transparency, and anti‐biofouling performance are identified. It is envisioned that the insights gained from the work can be used to systematically design surfaces that reduce marine biofouling in various industrial settings.more » « less
-
Corrosion is a significant global issue, resulting in high maintenance and repair costs. Long term structural integrity of metal and its products is directly dependent on its anti-corrosive properties. Surfaces exposed to marine environments are prone to microbial attachment followed by biofilm formation, resulting in bio-fouling. Hence coatings are used to protect the surfaces against corrosion and biofilm formation. Currently various organic coatings are used to protect metals and the cost of these coatings is directly dependent upon the cost of the fillers used to impart specific properties. Conventionally fillers such as zinc, Titanium and Silver based compounds are used in coatings for corrosion and/or microbial protection of surfaces, which are expensive. The underlying issue with using these compounds as fillers is that they can adversely effect mechanical and barrier properties, due to which they are used as a base coat and additional fillers are used to compensate for such property losses. Most of these coatings need an enhanced anti-microbial surface and improvement in their barrier efficacy against water/moisture, oxygen, and chloride ions. Hence it is imperative to develop low-cost fillers that will enhance both active & passive corrosion resistance properties, prevent microbial attachment on the surfaces and will not degrade any polymeric properties. In this work, ASL is developing a multi-functional low cost epoxy-clay nanocomposite coating, for microbial and corrosion resistance. Multi-functional coatings are developed using a multi-component approach, where the innovation lays in deriving the benefits of various fillers through a combinatorial approach to synergistic harvesting of functionality and vigor. The primary filler is a naturally abundant clay material and, owing to their sheet like morphology and layered structures, their surface can be modified to achieve the desired property enhancements. Sheet like morphology enhances polymer filler interactions, resulting in enhanced mechanical and reduced barrier properties. The presence of clay in the coating materials will mitigate the impact of moisture and chloride ions (in marine environment) providing passive protection to the coated surface. Modification of clay with transition metal ions (TMI) enhances corrosion resistance properties of coatings.more » « less
-
Abstract Achieving mobile liquid droplets on solid surfaces is crucial for various practical applications, such as self‐cleaning and anti‐fouling coatings. The last two decades have witnessed remarkable progress in designing functional surfaces, including super‐repellent surfaces and lubricant‐infused surfaces, which allow droplets to roll/slide on the surfaces. However, it remains a challenge to enable droplet motion on hydrophilic solid surfaces. In this work, we demonstrate mobile droplets containing ionic surfactants on smooth hydrophilic surfaces that are charged similarly to surfactant molecules. The ionic surfactant‐laden droplets display ultra‐low contact angle and ultra‐low sliding angle simultaneously on the hydrophilic surfaces. The sliding of the droplet is enabled by the adsorbed surfactant ahead of three‐phase contact line, which is regulated by the electrostatic interaction between ionic surfactant and charged solid surface. The droplet can maintain its motion even when the hydrophilic surface has defects. Furthermore, we demonstrate controlled manipulation of ionic surfactant‐laden droplets on hydrophilic surfaces with different patterns. We envision that our simple technique for achieving mobile droplets on hydrophilic surfaces can pave the way to novel slippery surfaces for different applications.more » « less
-
In this study, hydrophilic silica nanoparticles (Si NPs) were used to modify α-alumina tubular membranes to improve their performance in terms of flux, oil rejection, and anti-fouling properties. Our work focuses on enhancing membrane performance, particularly for difficult applications such as produced water treatment. The prepared membranes were applied for oil-in-water emulsion treatment. After coating hydrophilic Si NPs, the oil contact angle improved from 133.8° to 171.4°. To prevent Si NPs from leaching off the surface of α-alumina tubular membranes, polyvinyl alcohol was used to coat the membranes as a pre-treatment step before Si NP modification. After coating the membrane with Si NPs, the roughness of the membrane surface decreased, likely leading to less fouling. After coating Si NPs, Total Organic Carbon rejection increased from 93.1% for pristine α-alumina tubular membranes to 97.7% for silica-modified membranes because of hydrophilic improvements of the modified membranes. The Si NP coating improved the anti-fouling property of membranes with the flux recovery ratio increasing from 71.3% for pristine α-alumina tubular membranes to 85.9% for silica-modified membranes. Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy- dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, oil contact angle, and Atomic Force Microscopy characterization tests were done. The tests showed successful Si NPs impregnation and altered wettability.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2023.0485
