Influence of poly(ethylene oxide)-based copolymer on protein adsorption and bacterial adhesion on stainless steel: modulation by surface hydrophobicity.

The aim of the present work is to study the adhesion of Pseudomonas NCIMB 2021, a typical aerobic marine microorganism, on stainless steel (SS) substrate. More particularly, the potential effect on adhesion of adsorbed poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO) triblock copolymer is investigated. Bacterial attachment experiments were carried out using a modified parallel plate flow chamber, allowing different surface treatments to be compared in a single experiment. The amount of adhering bacteria was determined via DAPI staining and fluorescence microscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to characterize the surface chemical composition of SS and hydrophobized SS before and after PEO-PPO-PEO adsorption. The adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA), a model protein, was investigated to test the resistance of PEO-PPO-PEO layers to protein adsorption. The results show that BSA adsorption and Pseudomonas 2021 adhesion are significantly reduced on hydrophobized SS conditioned with PEO-PPO-PEO. Although PEO-PPO-PEO is also found to adsorb on SS, it does not prevent BSA adsorption nor bacterial adhesion, which is attributed to different PEO-PPO-PEO adlayer structures on hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. The obtained results open the way to a new strategy to reduce biofouling on metal oxide surfaces using PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymer.