Since yeast mimics the type of fouling that would be found in marine environments, we selected yeast as a foulant and performed experiments on static yeast adsorption.
We assessed biofouling by three different methods: agar plate method, UV-spectroscopy, and laser confocal microscope.
Figure 1 displays the amount of adsorbed yeast on the surfaces. The results show that yeast readily attaches to stainless steel. However, after the surface was modified using SurfTec’s coating, we found that yeast accumulation decreased by 80% percent over a 24-hour period.
Schematic of SurfTec’s anti-fouling coating.
The coating offers a thin light weight permanent coating that requires no replenishing and is designed to allow sufficient corrosion protection necessary to last numerous overhaul cycles.
EPDM rubber and SurfTec modified EPDM rubber were exposed to dyed yeast to examine biofouling of the surface. In this study it was found that the SurfTec modified EPDM rubber exhibited a 95% reduction in fouling. These exceptional results have not been observed in other permanent coatings.