Alidokht Leila, Fitzpatrick Katrina, Butler Caitlyn, Hunsucker Kelli Z, Braga Cierra, Maza William A, Fears Kenan P, Arekhi Marieh, Lanzarini-Lopes Mariana
Environmental and Water Resource Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, USA.
Center for Corrosion and Biofouling Control, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA.
Biofilm. 2024 Feb 28;7:100186. doi: 10.1016/j.bioflm.2024.100186. eCollection 2024 Jun.
Marine biofouling causes serious environmental problems and has adverse impacts on the maritime industry. Biofouling on windows and optical equipment reduces surface transparency, limiting their application for on-site monitoring or continuous measurement. This work illustrates that UV emitting glasses (UEGs) can prevent the establishment and growth of biofilm on the illuminated surfaces. Specifically, this paper describes how UEGs are enabled by innovatively modifying the surfaces of the glass with light scattering particles. Modification of glass surface with silica nanoparticles at a concentration 26.5 μg/cm resulted in over ten-fold increase in UV irradiance, while maintaining satisfactory visible and IR transparency metrics of over 99 %. The UEG reduced visible biological growth by 98 % and resulted in a decrease of 1.79 log in detected colony forming units when compared to the control during a 20 day submersion at Port Canaveral, Florida, United States. These findings serve as strong evidence that UV emitting glass should be explored as a promising approach for biofilm inhibition on transparent surfaces.
海洋生物污损会引发严重的环境问题，并对海运业产生不利影响。窗户和光学设备上的生物污损会降低表面透明度，限制其在现场监测或连续测量中的应用。这项工作表明，发射紫外线的玻璃（UEGs）可以防止生物膜在受光照表面上形成和生长。具体而言，本文描述了如何通过用光散射颗粒对玻璃表面进行创新改性来制备UEGs。以26.5μg/cm的浓度用二氧化硅纳米颗粒对玻璃表面进行改性，可使紫外线辐照度提高十倍以上，同时保持超过99%的令人满意的可见光和红外透明度指标。在美国佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔港浸泡20天期间，与对照相比，UEG使可见生物生长减少了98%，检测到的菌落形成单位减少了1.79个对数。这些发现有力地证明，发射紫外线的玻璃应作为一种有前景的抑制透明表面生物膜的方法进行探索。
