Stepwise Physicochemical Design of Antifouling Materials: Integrating Superamphiphobic Surfaces with Antibacterial Nanoparticles for Dual-Action Defense

The
pursuit of durable and eco-friendly antifouling surfaces has
become a critical challenge across engineered systems, ranging from
architectural coatings to marine infrastructure. Herein, we propose
an innovative stepwise physicochemical antifouling mechanism through
the rational integration of hierarchical superamphiphobic architectures
with bactericidal copper oxide nanoparticles. The designed coating
operates via a sequential defense protocol: physical antiadhesion
enabled by a superamphiphobic surface exhibiting ultralow surface
energy, coupled with a chemical antibacterial effect through controlled
Cu2+ ion release from embedded CuO nanoparticles. When
the action time reaches 24 h, the coating shows excellent antibacterial
effects against Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pseudomonas
aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). A scalable spray-coating
technique was developed using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES)-functionalized
CuO/SiO2 nanocomposites with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane
(PFDTES) modification for the coating fabrication. Systematic characterization
combining Cassie–Baxter modeling, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
(XPS) analysis, and bacterial viability assays confirms the mechanistic
coupling between topographical liquid repellency and chemical bactericidal
activity. The contact angle (CA) value of CuO-SiO2/APTES@PFDTES
calculated by dynamic density functional theory (DDFT) is 165.5°.
This work provides a promising strategy for the rational design of
advanced superamphiphobic antifouling coatings through physicochemical
antibacterial strategies.