Biomolecule-based antibacterial coating on a stainless steel surface: multilayer film build-up optimization and stability study

Abstract

The goal of this paper was to establish the durability profile of antibacterial multilayer thin films under storage and usage conditions. Thin films were built on stainless steel (SS) by means of a layer-by-layer process alternating a negatively charged polyelectrolyte, polyacrylic acid, with a cationic antibacterial peptide, nisin. SS coupons coated with the antibacterial film were challenged under environmental and usage conditions likely to be encountered in real-world applications. The change in antibacterial activity elicited by the challenge was used as an indicator of multilayer film resistance. Antibacterial SS samples could be stored for several weeks at 4°C in ambient air and antibacterial films were resistant to dipping and mild wiping in water and neutral detergent. The multilayer coating showed some weaknesses, however, that need to be addressed.

Keywords:

• polyelectrolyte multilayer films
• polyelectrolyte complexes
• antibacterial peptides
• stainless steel
• durability
• stability

Acknowledgements

This research was partly supported by the Walloon Region (PPP program Biocoat). The authors thank the Biocoat team members for their contributions, particularly Fabrice Farina (Advanced Coatings and Construction Solutions, CRM Group, Liège, Belgium) for providing SS coupons, Emilie Faure (Centre d'Etude et de Recherche sur les Macromolécules, University of Liège, Belgium) for sharing the P(DOPA)-co-P(DMAEMA+) copolymer, GIGA-R, the Systems Biology and Chemical Biology Unit (University of Liège, Belgium), and the Centre d'Ingénierie des Protéines (University of Liège, Belgium) for sharing the B. subtilis 168 strain.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

C. Vreuls

C. Vreuls and G. Zocchi equally contributed to this work.