Antibiofilm Activity of PDMS/TiO against through Inhibited Hydrophobic Recovery.

Coatings with antibiofilm properties are desirable for biomedical applications. Titanium dioxide (TiO) has been explored as an antimicrobial agent in materials development primarily due to it being an excellent photocatalyst. () is an emerging human fungal pathogen with known high resistance to oxidative stress. Here, we fabricated a polydimethylsiloxane/titanium dioxide (PDMS/TiO) nanocomposite coating and tested its antibiofilm activities against . The resulting nanocomposite exhibited >50% reduction in biofilm formation with 2.5 wt % TiO loading, even in the dark. Through ROS detection and surface characterization, the antibiofilm activity was attributed to the synergistic interaction of TiO nanoparticles with the PDMS matrix, which resulted in the impediment of hydrophobic recovery. This work provides a design strategy to develop antibiofilm coatings against .