Vibration at structural resonance frequency of hydrophilic substrates enhances biofilm removal

•Assembled a material that weaken biofilm adhesion and vibrate.•Developed tough gel coating to limit biofilm adhesion.•Determined higher surface energy limits the bacterial adhesion force.•Characterized the vibration dynamics of the material in response to input voltage.•Determined the resonance frequency and square mode of vibration removes biofilms. Biological fouling damages both human health and industry by causing infection, corrosion, structural failure, and drag on marine ships. Current efforts to clean bio-fouled surfaces by externally applying intensive mechanical energy often result in relapsed cell growth. Therefore, this study examines the extent that cell-structure interactions are orchestrated by vibration frequency, voltage-induced energy input mode, and surface energy to clean bio-fouled surfaces. This study was conducted with a tough polyacrylamide gel-coated polypropylene substrate attached to a flexible dielectric actuator that can vibrate when an oscillatory voltage is applied. We found that the maximum biofilm removal occurs by vibrating the gel-coated surface at the structural resonance frequency using a square wave input voltage. In addition, tuning the surface energy of the substrate was necessary for biofilm removal by decreasing the bacterial adhesive force. The findings from this study can be broadly applicable to assembling various advanced anti-fouling medical and industrial devices.