Effect of surface modification of basalt fiber on biofilm attachment

Abstract

Basalt fiber(BF) was modified with chitosan to investigate the influence of the surface modification on biofilm attachment properties. The surface functional groups, composition and morphology were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, the hydrophi-licity of BF was analyzed by contact angle measurement and the biofilm attachment properties were discussed via the microorganism immobilization tests. The results show that the surface-modified basalt fiber (MBF) can be successfully prepared by physical coating method. The surface roughness of MBF is 209.04nm, and the contact angle of MBF is 66.62°. Moreover, the biomass attached on MBF surface is significantly increased and the biofilm is relatively dense and homogeneous. The micro-organism immobilization rate is increased from (129.27±1.23)% to (179.92±2.63)%, thus illustr-ating that surface modification of basalt fiber can significantly improve biofilm attachment properties.

Keywords

• basalt fiber
• chitosan
• hydrophilicity
• surface roughness
• biofilm