Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1415 Engineering Dr., Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States.
Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Nov 24;13(46):55621-55632. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c14662. Epub 2021 Nov 14.
We report a layer-by-layer suction-and-flow approach that enables the fabrication of polymer-based "slippery" liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) in the confined luminal spaces of flexible, narrow-bore tubing. These SLIPS-coated tubes can prevent or strongly reduce surface fouling after prolonged contact, storage, or flow of a broad range of complex fluids and viscoelastic materials, including many that are relevant in the contexts of medical devices (e.g., blood and urine), food processing (beverages and fluids), and other commercial and industrial applications. The robust and mechanically compliant nature of the nanoporous coating used to host the lubricating oil phase allows these coated tubes to be bent, flexed, and coiled repeatedly without affecting their inherent slippery and antifouling behaviors. Our results also show that SLIPS-coated tubes can prevent the formation of bacterial biofilms after prolonged and repeated flow-based exposure to the human pathogen and that the anti-biofouling properties of these coated tubes can be further improved or prolonged by coupling this approach with strategies that permit the sustained release of broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents. The suction-and-flow approach used here enables the application of slippery coatings in the confined luminal spaces of narrow-bore tubing that are difficult to access using several other methods for the fabrication of liquid-infused coatings and can be applied to tubing of arbitrary length and diameter. We anticipate that the materials and approaches reported here will prove useful for reducing or preventing biofouling, process fouling, and the clogging or occlusion of tubing in a wide range of consumer, industrial, and healthcare-oriented applications.
我们报告了一种逐层抽吸和流动的方法，该方法能够在柔性、细口径管的受限内腔空间中制造基于聚合物的“光滑”液体注入多孔表面（SLIPS）。这些 SLIPS 涂层管可以在长时间接触、储存或流动各种复杂流体和粘弹性材料后防止或强烈减少表面污垢，这些材料包括许多与医疗器械（例如血液和尿液）、食品加工（饮料和流体）以及其他商业和工业应用相关的材料。用于容纳润滑油相的纳米多孔涂层具有坚固的机械适应性，使得这些涂层管可以反复弯曲、弯曲和盘绕而不会影响其固有的光滑和防污性能。我们的结果还表明，SLIPS 涂层管可以防止在长时间和重复基于流动的暴露于人体病原体后形成细菌生物膜，并且可以通过将这种方法与允许广谱抗菌剂持续释放的策略结合使用来进一步提高或延长这些涂层管的抗生物污损性能。这里使用的抽吸和流动方法能够在细口径管的受限内腔空间中应用光滑涂层，而使用其他几种制造液体注入涂层的方法很难进入这些空间，并且可以应用于任意长度和直径的管。我们预计，这里报道的材料和方法将有助于减少或防止生物污损、工艺污损以及在各种面向消费者、工业和医疗保健的应用中管的堵塞或堵塞。
