Effect of a marine bacterial biofilm on adhesion and retention of pseudo barnacle to silicone coating surface

The effect of a marine bacterial Cytophaga lytica (C. lytica) biofilm on the adhesion and retention of apseudobarnacle (epoxy adhesive) to platinum-cured silicone coatings was investigated at varying coating thickness(100-800 μm), modulus (E=0.08-1.3MPa), and shear rate (2-22 μm/s). The initial adhesion of C. lytica biofilm onthe silicone coating surfaces was increased as the coating modulus was increased. Nonetheless, the adhesion strengthof the pseudobarnacle was not significantly influenced by the attached biofilms, with its strength decreasing with increasingthe coating modulus. Thus, these results suggest that the pseudobarnacle adhesion strength would be primarilydetermined by physico-mechanical properties of the silicone coatings. Also, the adhesion/detachment tests demonstratedthat the retention of the pseudobarnacle after water jetting was minimal for the soft silicone coating (VP1), whichshowed better performance than the widely acceptable silicone resin of DC 3140. KCI Citation Count: 1