BIOMOSAIC Film: Artificial Biofilms with Catalytic and Self‐Sealing Properties

Abstract

Biofilms are a self‐organized, self‐structured community of microorganisms that are enclosed in a self‐produced polymeric matrix. Due to the intrinsic complexity of biofilms, their artificial preparation has remained a challenge despite practical usefulness as reservoirs for biocatalysts. Herein, autonomously generated artificial biofilms termed BIOMOSAIC (BioInspired, Oxygen‐induced Microbial Organization through Self‐Assembly at the air/liquid Interface as a Catalyst) films are reported. Similar to bacterial homing, a large number of cells are spontaneously recruited and immobilized into the film, which is autonomously generated at air/liquid interfaces by simple mixing of phenolic polyamine and tyrosinase‐expressing Pseudomonas fluorescens. BIOMOSAIC films are self‐regenerated, portable, reusable, and freestanding. They are multifunctional depending on types of gene expressions from the cells, catalyzing various reactions such as l‐DOPA production, dephosphorylation, and lipid hydrolysis. Furthermore, BIOMOSAIC film exhibits effective crude oil degradation properties, indicating that it can be a new self‐producing and self‐sustaining platform for bioremediation.

Bacterial Materials: Applications of Natural and Modified Biofilms

“…A new, bioinspired method based on the self‐assembly process of chitosan macromolecules was introduced by Park et al. [ 94 ] Here, tyrosinase‐producing bacteria modified the chitosan biopolymers such that they bound to the bacteria and formed a network around them. Artificial biofilms produced this way showed better cell loading capacity and cellular viability than those obtained via conventional encapsulation strategies.…”

Robust and Large-Area Calix[4]pyrrole-Based Nanofilms Enabled by Air/DMSO Interfacial Self-Assembly-Confined Synthesis

“…Among them, notable attention has been paid to interfacial polymerization and synthesis owing to advantages in designability and controllability. However, the fabrication of large-area defect-free nanofilms still remains a challenge. − Air/water interfacial assembling of biopolymers is another widely adopted strategy to prepare large-area thin films. − Unlike the liquid/liquid interfacial strategy, the air/liquid interface self-assembling is a gradually proceeded process even though both of them takes advantage of the energy-well effect . The slow dynamics in the air/liquid interfacial process provides more opportunities for eliminating defects, resulting in high-quality nanofilms.…”

“…Moreover, the air/liquid system is easier to scale-up partially due to convenience in operation and film transfer. However, this strategy has its own shortcomings, such as, (1) separation efficiency and selectivity of the nanofilms are moderate, (2) the mechanical strength of the films is generally low particularly when the thickness is below 100 nm, , (3) designability is insufficient due to limited choice of polymers and proteins. − …”