The team led by ARC Research Hub for Australian Steel Manufacturing have been able to identify a previously unclear fundamental mechanism that inhibits surface fouling.

In unlocking the mystery of what makes water bind to certain surfaces, they have improved the chances of creating cheap and effective antifouling solutions.

Effective antifouling strategies can reduce the build-up of organisms, such as bacteria, that degrade or contaminate a product, increasing maintenance and replacement costs.

In work published recently in the journal ACS Nano, the researchers used colloidal silica, or small glass beads, that are added to a solution and mixed with other materials, such as polymers.

The addition of the glass beads can be used to modify the ability to attract or ‘stick’ to water.

Research Fellow Dr Paul Molino said the silica colloids have a surface chemistry that allows particles to bind to each other, forming a stable coating, while also interacting with water in a manner that inhibits micro-organisms from attaching and populating.

“We discovered that these silica colloids have remarkable, broad-ranging antifouling properties, with the ability to prevent adsorption of proteins, and attachment and colonisation of bacteria and micro-organisms,” Dr Molino said.

“They could help provide a simple, cheap and practical solution to producing antifouling systems, potentially on biomedical devices to prevent blood clotting, bacteria adhesion and possible infection, or for industrial applications.”

A key part of the work was using advanced high-resolution imaging and modelling to unlock the secrets of how the bonding works.

Project leader Associate Professor Michael Higgins said that rather than an ordered network of molecules across the surface, they found an unstable or moving layer of water.

Micro-organisms like bacteria need food, water and a stable surface to grow.

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“In future, we may also be able to design colloidal silica that mimics the antifouling mechanism to produce a wider-range of systems adaptable to different situations or environments,” Professor Higgins said.

“As a result, the development of antifouling materials for a multitude of applications, including the modification of surfaces to prevent infection associated with implantable medical devices, or the build-up of slime layers on ships/recreational boats, is significantly advanced.”