(659j) Inhibition of Bacterial Adhesion and Attachment Using Aerogels

With outbreaks of foodborne illnesses occurring more frequently, it is becoming increasingly necessary to develop of transformative intervention strategies to prevent pathogen adherence to produce and to completely remove adhered pathogens from the surface of produce.  In this presentation, I am going to talk about the ability of chlorotrimethylsilane (CTMS) functionalized silica aerogel to completely stop the adhesion of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC). Neither pristine nor CMTS-functionalized non-porous silica materials displayed similar levels of bacterial-attachment inhibition compared to the hydrophobic silica aerogel. To be specific, upon the EHEC exposure of 10⁸ CFU /ml, the hydrophilic quartz surfaces had an EHEC density of 6.38±0.74x10⁴ bacteria/cm² while the hydrophobic quartz had 7.34±0.44x10³ bacteria/cm². The hydrophobic aerogel had no bacteria on them. The superior bacterial anti-adhesion behavior is ascribed to the negative Hamaker constant and repulsive van der Waals interactions for the bacteria-aerogel-water system. Overall, the realization of repulsive van der Waals interactions in a bacterial system is significant in the context of surface and interface science and coating design.