Preventing algae biofilm formation via designing long-term oil storage surfaces for excellent antifouling performance

Fabricating slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), typically composed of lubricant and microstructured surface, is an effective way to solve the problem of marine anti-fouling. In the present work, acetone acted as a volatile solvent, and epoxy resin acted as a linking agent were mixed with one-dimensional material with different length (300-nm carbon nanotubes, 300-μm carbon fiber, and 1-mm polyacrylonitrile fiber). After acetone volatilized, one-dimensional materials with different length could form various kind of internal or surface structures. 300-μm carbon fiber could form a hierarchical structure with both internal holes and vertical needle-shaped structures, which effectively ensured the storage stability of lubricant in the structure. And through 21 days of algae attachment experiment, compared with the bare epoxy resin, the lubricant-infused carbon fiber structure (SLIPS-EP/CF) displayed superior anti-fouling performance with the reduction rate of chlorella was 91.4% and the phaeodactylum tricornutum was 77.8%. Additionally, the TEM and SEM analysis showed the attachment of algae to the surface of lubricant, and it was interesting to observe that algae could be wrapped by silicone oil and could not produce algae biofilm, which was presented by the first time. Since the formation of algae biofilm was inhibited, a large number of algae attachment was avoided, thereby realizing effective antifouling performance.