Anti-Biofouling Functional Surfaces for Marine Aquaculture [Dataset]

Aquaculture is a global scale industry providing sustainable production of protein-rich foods required to feed the growing world population. Microalgae cultivation in aquaculture bioreactors can exude extracellular polymeric substances leading to biofouling of infrastructure and increased disease risk. A structure–behaviour relationship was developed by examining how the surface wettability of a range of functional nanocoatings impacts the extent of biofouling during exposure to continuous microalgae culture under normal hydrodynamic conditions. High wetting (hydrophilic) surfaces were found to reduce biofouling better than water repelling (hydrophobic) surfaces. Low toxicity in conjunction with antifouling behaviour was found for pulsed plasma poly(4-vinylpyridine) coated bioreactor surfaces (water contact angle = 38 ± 5 °) towards the marine microalgal species Chaetoceros calcitrans, Chaetoceros mulleri, and Tisochrysis lutea (T-Iso), which are commonly grown as aquaculture food.