Antifouling Properties of Electrospun Polymeric Coatings Induced by Controlled Surface Morphology

• Published in: Energy & environmental materials (Hoboken, N.J.) N.J.), 2024-11, Vol.7 (6), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Favrin, Fabio L., Zavagna, Lorenzo, Sestini, Matteo, Esin, Semih, Azimi, Bahareh, Labardi, Massimiliano, Milazzo, Mario, Gallone, Giuseppe, Batoni, Giovanna, Danti, Serena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: additive manufacturing; Adhesion; Antifouling coatings; Antifouling substances; Bacteria; Biofilms; Coatings; Control surfaces; Electrospinning; Escherichia coli; Fibers; Hydrophobicity; Medical devices; Medical equipment; Medical materials; Morphology; Nosocomial infection; Nosocomial infections; Poly(vinylidene fluoride‐co‐trifluoro ethylene) P(VDF‐TrFE); Polymer coatings; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; superhydrophobic; Vinylidene; Vinylidene fluoride; Wettability
• ISSN: 2575-0356; 2575-0356
• DOI: 10.1002/eem2.12773

Nosocomial infections affect implanted medical devices and greatly challenge their functional outcomes, becoming sometimes life threatening for the patients. Therefore, aggressive antibiotic therapies are administered, which often require the use of last‐resort drugs, if the infection is caused by multi‐drug‐resistant bacteria. Reducing the risk of bacterial contamination of medical devices in the hospitals has thus become an emerging issue. Promising routes to control these infections are based on materials provided with intrinsic bactericidal properties (i.e., chemical action) and on the design of surface coatings able to limit bacteria adhesion and fouling phenomena (i.e., physical action), thus preventing bacterial biofilm formation. Here, we report the development and validation of coatings made of layer‐by‐layer deposition of electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride‐co‐trifluoro ethylene) P(VDF‐TrFE) fibers with controlled orientations, which ultimately gave rise to antifouling surfaces. The obtained 10‐layer surface morphology with 90° orientation fibers was able to efficiently prevent the adhesion of bacteria, by establishing a superhydrophobic‐like behavior compatible with the Cassie‐Baxter regimen. Moreover, the results highlighted that surface wettability and bacteria adhesion could be controlled using fibers with diameter comparable to bacteria size (i.e., achievable via electrospinning process), by tuning the intra‐fiber spacing, with relevant implications in the future design of biomedical surface coatings. In diameter, ultrafine fibers as produced via electrospinning can match the size of bacteria. By producing an 8–10 layered structure of uniaxially aligned fibers, each layer with fibers oriented at 90° with respect to the underlying ones, we generate 3D porous structures hampering bacterial spread via geometrical features. In addition, using an inherently hydrophobic polymer, such as P(VDF‐TrFE), these fibrous coatings acquire a superhydrophobic behavior, therefore limiting the biofouling phenomena. Controlling bacterial spread solely by physical and geometrical factors will reduce the use of antibiotics, thus contributing to limit the development of drug‐resistant species.