Sójka Olga, van der Mei Henny C, van Rijn Patrick, Gagliano Maria Cristina
Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Feb 21;11:1066126. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1066126. eCollection 2023.
Presence of biofilms in drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) can be a nuisance, leading to several operational and maintenance issues (i.e., increased secondary disinfectants demand, pipe damage or increased flow resistance), and so far, no single control practice was found to be sufficiently effective. Here, we propose poly (sulfobetaine methacrylate) (P(SBMA))-based hydrogel coating application as a biofilm control strategy in DWDS. The P(SBMA) coating was synthetized through photoinitiated free radical polymerization on polydimethylsiloxane with different combinations of SBMA as a monomer, and -methylenebis (acrylamide) (BIS) as a cross-linker. The most stable coating in terms of its mechanical properties was obtained using 20% SBMA with a 20:1 SBMA:BIS ratio. The coating was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy, and water contact angle measurements. The anti-adhesive performance of the coating was evaluated in a parallel-plate flow chamber system against adhesion of four bacterial strains representing genera commonly identified in DWDS biofilm communities, and . The selected strains exhibited varying adhesion behaviors in terms of attachment density and bacteria distribution on the surface. Despite these differences, after 4 h, presence of the P(SBMA)-based hydrogel coating significantly reduced the number of adhering bacteria by 97%, 94%, 98% and 99%, for Sph5, Sph10, and , respectively, compared to non-coated surfaces. These findings motivate further research into a potential application of a hydrogel anti-adhesive coating as a localized biofilm control strategy in DWDS, especially on materials known to promote excessive biofilm growth.
饮用水分配系统（DWDS）中生物膜的存在可能会造成麻烦，导致一些操作和维护问题（即二次消毒剂需求增加、管道损坏或流动阻力增加），到目前为止，尚未发现单一的控制措施足够有效。在此，我们提出将基于聚（甲基丙烯酰基磺酸甜菜碱）（P(SBMA)）的水凝胶涂层应用作为DWDS中的生物膜控制策略。P(SBMA)涂层是通过光引发自由基聚合在聚二甲基硅氧烷上合成的，使用不同组合的甲基丙烯酰基磺酸甜菜碱（SBMA）作为单体，以及N,N'-亚甲基双丙烯酰胺（BIS）作为交联剂。就机械性能而言，使用20%的SBMA和20:1的SBMA:BIS比例可获得最稳定的涂层。使用扫描电子显微镜、能量色散X射线光谱和水接触角测量对涂层进行了表征。在平行平板流动室系统中评估了涂层对代表DWDS生物膜群落中常见属的四种细菌菌株（分别为 Sph5、 Sph10、 和 ）的抗粘附性能。所选菌株在附着密度和表面细菌分布方面表现出不同的粘附行为。尽管存在这些差异，但在4小时后，与未涂层表面相比，基于P(SBMA)的水凝胶涂层使 Sph5、 Sph10、 和 的粘附细菌数量分别显著减少了97%、94%、98%和99%。这些发现促使人们进一步研究水凝胶抗粘附涂层作为DWDS中局部生物膜控制策略的潜在应用，特别是在已知会促进过度生物膜生长的材料上。
