Properties of the Iron Bacteria Biofouling on Ni–P–rGO Coating

Abstract

Biofouling on heat exchange devices can decrease heat transfer efficiency, corrode materials, and even lead to safety accidents. Most heat exchange devices are made of carbon steel that efficiently produces biofouling. However, in this paper, a nickel−phosphorus−reduced graphene oxide (Ni−P−rGO) coating was prepared on carbon steel by electroless plating to investigate the properties of iron bacteria biofouling. The surface coating was analyzed via scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. After the carbon steel and the Ni−P−rGO coating were immersed into an iron bacteria solution for 120 h, the weight of the iron bacteria biofouling on the Ni−P−rGO coating sharply decreased when compared with the carbon steel. We can conclude that the concentration of graphene can affect the weight of iron bacteria biofouling. We also found that the coating solution with 40 mg/L of graphene performed the best in inhibiting biofouling by decreasing the weight of the biofouling by 97.2% compared to carbon steel.

Keywords

• biofouling
• electroless
• graphene
• surface energy
• dlvo theory
• iron bacteria