Background Biofilms occur on a wide variety of surfaces including metals, ceramics, glass etc. and often leads to accumulation of large number of various microorganisms on the surfaces. This biofilm growth is highly undesirable in most cases as biofilms can cause degradation of the instruments and its performance along with contamination of the samples being processed in those systems. The current “offline” biofilm removal methods are effective but labor intensive and generates waste streams that are toxic to be directly disposed. We present here a novel process that uses nano-energetic materials to eliminate biofilms in Results The nanoenergetic material is a mixture of aluminum (Al) nanoparticles dispersed in a THV-220A (fluoropolymer oxidizer) matrix. Upon ignition, the Al nanoparticles react with THV-220A exothermically, producing high temperatures (>2500?K) for an extremely brief period (~100?ms) that destroys the biofilm underneath. However, since the total amount of heat produced is low (~0.1?kJ/cm2), the underlying surface remains undamaged. Surfaces with biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa initially harboring?~?107?CFU of bacteria /cm2 displayed final counts of less than 5?CFU/cm2 after being subjected to our process. The byproducts of the process consist only of washable carbonaceous residue and gases, making this process potentially inexpensive due to low toxic-waste disposal costs. Conclusions This novel method of biofilm removal is currently in the early stage of development. However, it has potential to be used in offline biofilm elimination as a rapid, easy and environmentally friendly method.
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机译：背景技术生物膜存在于包括金属，陶瓷，玻璃等在内的多种表面上，并且经常导致大量各种微生物在表面上积聚。在大多数情况下，这种生物膜的生长是非常不希望的，因为生物膜会导致仪器及其性能的退化以及那些系统中正在处理的样品的污染。当前的“离线”生物膜去除方法是有效的，但是劳动强度大，并且产生有毒的废物流，可以直接处置。我们在这里提出一种使用纳米高能材料消除生物膜的新颖方法。纳米高能材料是分散在THV-220A（含氟聚合物氧化剂）基质中的铝（Al）纳米颗粒的混合物。点燃后，铝纳米颗粒与THV-220A放热反应，在极短的时间内（约100µms）产生高温（> 2500？K），破坏了下面的生物膜。但是，由于产生的热量很低（〜0.1？kJ / cm 2 ），所以下面的表面不会损坏。最初带有？/？ 7 ？CFU细菌/ cm 2 的铜绿假单胞菌生物膜表面显示最终计数低于5？CFU / cm 2 < / sup>进行我们的处理后。该方法的副产物仅由可洗涤的碳质残余物和气体组成，由于低毒性废物处置成本，使得该方法潜在地廉价。结论这种新颖的生物膜去除方法目前处于开发的早期阶段。但是，它有潜力作为一种快速，简便且环保的方法用于脱机生物膜消除。
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