Abstract
A close observation of natural lotus leaves provided the inspiration to develop superhydrophobic surfaces on marine steels to inhibit biofouling. Low-alloyed steel such as DMR 249A is chosen for the present study and modified using mechanical polishing, shot blasting, grit blasting, glass bead blasting and pickling, and coated with a low-surface energy material such as silane. The resultant samples are found to be superhydrophobic with apparent advancing water contact angles around 150° and tilting angles less than 5°. The surface morphology and surface roughness are analysed using scanning electron microscopy and surface profilometer. Depending on the surface treatment employed, the morphology and surface roughness vary widely and they are correlated to the wetting behaviour of the samples. The surface-modified marine steels are exposed to the bacterial cultures of Pseudomonas sp. to elucidate their antifouling behaviour. The exposure studies revealed less bacterial adhesion in surface-modified samples as compared to the uncoated samples. The aim of this paper is to stress the unconventional use of superhydrophobic coatings based on silanes to inhibit biofouling on marine steels.
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