Abstract
Toward minimizing bacterial colonization of surfaces, we present a one-step etching technique that renders aluminum alloys with micro- and nano-scale roughness. Such a multi-scale surface topography exhibited enhanced antibacterial effect against a wide range of pathogens. Multi-scale topography of commercially grade pure aluminum killed 97% of Escherichia coli and 28% of Staphylococcus aureus cells in comparison to 7% and 3%, respectively, on the smooth surfaces. Multi-scale topography on Al 5052 surface was shown to kill 94% of adhered E. coli cells. The microscale features on the etched Al 1200 alloy were not found to be significantly bactericidal, but shown to decrease the adherence of S. aureus cells by one-third. The fabrication method is easily scalable for industrial applications. Analysis of roughness parameters determined by atomic force microscopy revealed a set of significant parameters that can yield a highly bactericidal surface; thereby providing the design to make any surface bactericidal irrespective of the method of fabrication. The multi-scale roughness of Al 5052 alloy was also highly bactericidal to nosocomial isolates of E. coli, K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa. We envisage the potential application of engineered surfaces with multi-scale topography to minimize the spread of nosocomial infections.
Highlights
Evolutionary processes over billions of years have led to design optimization to tackle a variety of adverse challenges encountered by livingJ
The antifouling activity of a surface is dependent on its ability to resist different kinds of contaminants such as bacteria, yeasts, diatoms, larva or algal spores, see weeds and others which are all of variety of sizes [6,7,8]
The bactericidal property of their wings is attributed to the mechanical rupture of bacterial cell membrane induced by the physical interaction of cells with the nanotopography present on the wing
Summary
Evolutionary processes over billions of years have led to design optimization to tackle a variety of adverse challenges encountered by livingJ. The antifouling effect of a surface exhibiting micron and nanoscale roughness will only be able to resist only those fouling agents which are in the similar length scales such as bacteria. The bactericidal property of their wings is attributed to the mechanical rupture of bacterial cell membrane induced by the physical interaction of cells with the nanotopography present on the wing By means of this design, nature has evolved effective means to reduce the biofouling of surfaces. Inspired by such natural surfaces, researchers have induced multi-scale surface roughness on several artificial surfaces to geometrically check the behavior of bacterial attachment and delay the formation of biofilms [10,13,14,15,16,17,18]. Readers are directed to very detailed reviews on micro- and nanostructured materials with focus on fabrication, characterization and cellular attachment behavior [24,25,26]
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