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Dear Colleagues,

The fouling and contamination of devices, vehicles, and other surfaces come with significant costs in terms of lost efficiency, increased maintenance requirements, need for cleaning, as well as reduced performance and service lifetimes. For example, the removal of graffiti from buildings is costly and time-consuming, the fouling of ship hulls results in higher fuel costs as well as a greater environmental footprint, while the fouling of biomedical devices can pose a risk of infection. To address this, self-cleaning and anti-fouling surfaces have been developed, which are less prone to contamination by residues, smudges, or the growth of bacteria, algae, and other microorganisms. Many of these coatings can repel both water and oils on account of various features, such as a low surface tension (typically due to the incorporation of fluorine- or silicon-containing compounds), dual-scale surface roughness, re-entrant surfaces, or other characteristics. In addition to textured or rough surfaces, smooth self-cleaning coatings have also been developed. Many advances have also been made in recent years toward enhancing the durability of self-cleaning materials while reducing their costs. As technology advances, the range of devices will continue to expand, and many of these will be employed in environments where they are susceptible to surface contamination. Therefore, the demand for anti-fouling and self-cleaning surfaces will continue to grow.

This Special Issue aims to cover recent advances with regard to coatings and surfaces that have been realized in the field of anti-fouling surfaces. We welcome contributions on the prevention of biofouling as well as on the development of liquid- and smudge-repellent surfaces. Therefore, we will appreciate contributions involving the development of anti-fouling surfaces as well as self-cleaning materials, including research articles, communications, as well as review articles.

Dr. Ian Wyman
Dr. Xu Wu
Dr. Muhammad Rabnawaz
Guest Editors

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Keywords

anti-fouling surfaces
foul-release surfaces
self-cleaning coatings
surface tension
contact angles

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Research

16 pages, 1035 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Chemical Defence of a Seagrass against Microfoulers and Its Seasonal Dynamics

by Chi Guan, Mahasweta Saha and Florian Weinberger

Appl. Sci. 2019, 9(6), 1258; https://doi.org/10.3390/app9061258 - 26 Mar 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3537

Abstract

In marine environments bacterial microfoulers are an important determinant for the settlement of algal and animal macrofoulers. At the same time fouling is usually subject to seasonal fluctuation. Additionally, the seagrass Zostera marina is prone to microfouling, although this marine spermatophyte is known to be chemically defended against bacterial settlers. Spermatophytes are often capable of induced or activated defences against biological enemies such as pathogens or herbivores, but it is still unknown whether they can fine-tune their antifouling-defence according to settlement pressure. We therefore assessed the seasonality of bacterial settlement pressure, defence against microsettlers and concentrations of a previously identified defence compound, rosmarinic acid, on surfaces of Z. marina. All examined variables peaked in summer, while they tended to be lower in spring and autumn. The seasonality of defence activity and rosmarinic acid surface concentration was positively correlated with the seasonal fluctuation of fouling pressure, which suggests that Z. marina can adjust its defence level to the relatively high bacterial fouling pressure in summer. Besides of biotic factors the seasonal change of environmental factors, such as nitrogen supply, and in particular temperature, also affected the defence level, either directly or through indirect effects on the microbial settlers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Self-Cleaning and Antifouling Surfaces)

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