Surface superhydrophobicity makes bacterial biofilms very difficult to fight, and it is a combination of their matrix composition and complex surface roughness which synergistically protects these biomaterials from wetting. Although trying to eradicate biofilms with aqueous (antibiotic) solutions is common practice, this can be a futile approach if the biofilms have superhydrophobic properties. To date, there are not many options available to reduce the liquid repellency of biofilms or to prevent this material property from developing. Here, we present a solution to this challenge. We demonstrate how the addition of metal ions such as copper and zinc during or after biofilm formation can render the surface of otherwise superhydrophobic B. subtilis NCIB 3610 biofilms completely wettable. As a result of this procedure, these smoother, hydrophilic biofilms are more susceptible to aqueous antibiotics solutions. Our strategy proposes a scalable and widely applicable step in a multi-faceted approach to eradicate biofilms.
Over millennia, bacteria have developed clever strategies to build biopolymer‐based communities in which they can survive even extremely challenging conditions. Such bacterial biofilms come with a broad range of fascinating material properties that—in settings such as medicine, food production, or other areas of industry—make it difficult to remove or inactivate them: they can stick to many surfaces, repel water and oils, and can even transport electrons. Inspired by the outstanding versatility and sturdiness of such bacterial biofilms, material scientists have set out to harness those properties and to create bacterial materials for different applications. However, as the range of technological applications employing biofilms keeps expanding, improved material properties or broader functionalities are desired. Here, such attempts where materials with improved properties were created by making use of either natural or modified bacterial biofilms are reviewed. The areas in which those bacterial materials may be used range from agriculture and (environmental) biotechnology over biomedical and electrical engineering to construction engineering.
Depending on the main polymer component of the biofilms studied, chelate complexes with metal ions can be formed that entail an increase in biofilm stiffness.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.