Improved antibiofouling properties of photobioreactor with amphiphilic sulfobetaine copolymer coatings

[Display omitted] •Amphiphilic sulfobetaine copolymer (ASC) coating were used to improve the antibiofouling capability of photobioreactor.•The contact angle of ASC modified EVA (EVA-ASC) film sharply decreased after immersed in water.•The EVA-ASC film either in dry, or in water swollen state exhibited excellent optical transparency in the visible light.•The density of absorbed protein and microalgae on the EVA-ASC film decreased 92% and 50% compared with those of EVA film. Biofouling is a critical challenge for the commercial application of photobioreactors for microalgae cultivation. In this work, a series of amphiphilic sulfobetaine copolymers (ASC) with different ratios of sulfobetaine (SBMA) and 2, 2, 2-trifluoroethyl methacrylate (TFMA) were synthesized via a monomer-starved seeded semi-continous emulsion polymerization method and were used to improve the antibiofouling capability of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) film by surface coating method. Effects of the SBMA/TFMA ratio on the resultant ASC latexes and coating properties were investigated. With the increase of the SBMA/TFMA ratio, the particle diameter, polydispersity index and water uptake of ASC latexes and coating decreased from 261.8 nm to 144.9 nm, 0.198 to 0.054 and 26.28 % to 7.84 %, respectively, and increased afterwards. Fourier transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis (XPS) indicated that SBMA and TFMA were introduced onto the EVA film surface successfully. The contact angle of ASC modified EVA (EVA-ASC) film sharply decreased after immersed in water. The EVA-ASC film either in dry, or in water swollen state exhibited excellent optical transparency in the visible light. The adsorption of bovine serum albumin and Chlorella sp. on the EVA-ASC surface was investigated with protein and microalgae adsorption assay. It was shown that the EVA-ASC film had excellent protein and microalgae absorption resisting characteristic, the density of absorbed protein and microalgae decreased 92 % and 50 % compared with those of EVA film, respectively.