Researchers design novel antibiofouling biomimetic diamond film

Biofouling is a worldwide problem that leads to severe deterioration after a substrate comes into contact with seawater. Traditional polymers and other antifouling coatings suffer from poor mechanical and chemical stability, which diminishes the antibacterial and antibiofouling performance upon progression of usage time.

In a study published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, researchers report on the development of a biomimetic diamond film that simultaneously achieved superhydrophobicity, self-cleaning, antibacterial efficacy, antibiofouling, mechanical robustness and chemical stability. This study was conducted by Prof. TANG Yongbing and his collaborators from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Inspired by the micro- and nano-structures on the taro and lotus leaves, the researchers creatively designed the hierarchically structured diamond film. They synthesized it via a novel bottom-up strategy based on hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) and two-step self-assembly seeding processes.

The structured diamond coatings were successfully constructed on various commercial substrates, include alloys, silicon, quartz glass, and ceramics, with large scale and complex geometries. The experiments showed that the micro- and nanometer sized hierarchical diamond surfaces have inherently superhydrophobicity, which also repelled microbial adhesion.

Notably, the biomimetic hierarchical diamond coatings reduced bacteria attachment by 90-99% and in the marine environment, reduced the adhesion of green algae by more than 95%.

Even after long-term immersion in seawater, the antibacterial efficacy persisted, and the wear resistance of the film was 20 times greater than bare commercial substrates.