NO-releasing superhydrophobic surfaces (2012)

Undergraduates: Hetali Lodaya, Wesley Storm

Faculty Advisor: Mark Schoenfisch
Department: Chemistry

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Roughly 100,000 hospital-infection related deaths occur in the United States each year. Decreasing bacterial adhesion and viability onto bioimplant surfaces is a strategy to decrease infection associated with medical devices. Nitric oxide has already been shown to be a bioactive molecule with anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Superhydrophobic materials, defined as surfaces with a water contact angle greater than 150°, reduce bacterial adhesion by decreasing water contact area and duration with the surface. A strategy was developed to dope xerogel films with silica nanoparticles to impart surface roughness, leading to superhydrophobicity, and to then functionalize those particles with NO, giving the surface anti-bacterial release properties. This study demonstrates a passive and an active approach to decreasing bacterial adhesion and viability combined together.