Diatom attachment inhibition: limiting surface accessibility through air entrapment.

Surfaces consisting of sub micron holes (0.420-0.765 µm) engineered into nanoparticle (12 nm) coatings were examined for marine antifouling behaviour that defines early stage settlement. Immersed surfaces were found to be resistant to a 5-hour attachment assay of Amphora coffeaeformis, a marine organism commonly found in abundance on fouled substrates such as foul-releasing paints and self-polishing coatings. Attachment inhibition was attributed to the accessibility of diatoms to the surface. This was governed by the size and morphology of trapped interfacial air pockets measured in-situ using synchrotron small angle x-ray scattering. Surfaces containing larger pores (0.765 µm) exhibited the highest resistance. Macroscopic wettability via contact angle measurements however remained at 160° and sliding angle of < 5° and was found to be independent of pore size and not indicative of early stage fouling behaviour. The balance of hierarchical nano/micro length scales was critical in defining the early stage stability of biofouling character of the interface.

Hierarchical surfaces: an in situ investigation into nano and micro scale wettability.

Two scales of roughness are imparted onto silicon surfaces by isotropically patterning micron sized pillars using photolithography followed by an additional nanoparticle coating. Contact angles of the patterned surfaces were observed to increase with the addition of the nanoparticle coating, several of which, exhibited superhydrophobic characteristics. Freeze fracture atomic force microscopy and in situ synchrotron SAXS were used to investigate the micro- and nano-wettability of these surfaces using aqueous liquids of varying surface tension. The results revealed that scaling different roughness morphologies result in unique wetting characteristics. It indicated that surfaces with micro, nano or dual scale roughness induced channels for the wetting liquid as per capillary action. With the reduction of liquid surface tension, nano-wetting behaviour differed between superhydrophobic and non-superhydrophobic dual-scale roughness surfaces. Micro-wetting behaviour, however, remained consistent. This suggests that micro- and nano-wetting are mutually exclusive, and that the order in which they occur is ultimately governed by the energy expenditure of the entire system.

An endogenous inhibitor protein of synaptic plasma membrane (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPase.

An inhibitor protein of synaptic plasma membrane (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPase was purified to apparent homogeneity from rat cerebrum by a molecular weight cut followed by chromatography of cytosol proteins with molecular weights between 10 000 and 3500 on DEAE-Sephadex at pH 5.2. The inhibitor could be partially inactivated by proteinases and dithiothreitol, but was heat-stable. Gel filtration gave a molecular weight of about 6000. Like the (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPase inhibitor protein isolated from erythrocytes, the inhibitor from brain contains a characteristic high proportion of glutamic acid (36%) and glycine (37%) residues. Synaptic plasma membrane Mg2+-ATPase and microsomal membrane (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPase did not respond to the inhibitor. Synaptic plasma membrane and erythrocyte membrane (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPases, however, were affected. Inhibitory influence on synaptic membrane (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPase was reversible, since inhibition could be relieved upon removal of inhibitor from saturable sites on the membrane. The inhibitor is not a calmodulin-binding protein, since the concentration of calmodulin for half-maximal activation of the ATPase was unaffected by its presence. Mode of inhibition of the (Ca2+ + Mg2+)-ATPase by the inhibitor was non-competitive.