Thin film coatings prepared from commercially available glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPS) modified silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) (Bindzil® CC301 and Bindzil® CC302) have previously shown excellent antifouling performance against a broad range of microbes [Molino et al., “Hydration layer structure of biofouling-resistant nanoparticles,” ACS Nano 12, 11610 (2018)]. In this work, single cell force spectroscopy (SCFS) was used to measure the biological interactions between Epicoccum nigrum fungal spores and the same silica nanoparticle-based surfaces used in the aforementioned study, including a: glass coverslip, unmodified SiNP coatings, and both low (Bindzil® CC301) and high density (CC302) GPS functionalized SiNP coatings as a function of NaCl concentration. From the SCFS curves, the spore adhesion to the surface was greatest on the glass coverslip (20–80 nN) followed by the unmodified SiNP (3–5 nN) across all salt concentrations. Upon approach to both surfaces, the spores showed a long-range attraction generally with a profile characteristic of biointeractions and likely those of the outer cell wall structures or biological constituents. The attractive force allowed the spores to initially adhere to the surface and was found to be linearly proportional to the spore adhesion. In comparison, both high and low density GPS-SINP significantly reduced the spore adhesion (0.5–0.9 nN). In addition, the spore adhesion on high density GPS-SiNP occurred in only 14%–27% of SCFS curves (40%–48% for low density GPS-SiNP) compared to 83%–97% for the unmodified SiNP, indicating that in most cases the GPS functionalization completely prevented spore adhesion. The GPS-SiNP surfaces conversely showed a long-range electrostatic repulsion at low 1mM NaCl that was replaced by short-range repulsion at the higher salt concentrations. From the findings, it is proposed that the attractive force is a critical step in initial adhesion processes of the spore. The effective antifouling properties of the GPS are attributed to the ability to negate the attractive forces, either through electrostatic repulsion in low salt conditions and primarily from short-range repulsion correlating to the previously reported combined steric-hydration effect of the GPS functionalization on SiNP coatings.

中文翻译：

---

如单细胞力谱所揭示的，真菌孢子在环氧丙氧基丙基三甲氧基硅烷改性的二氧化硅纳米颗粒表面上的粘附。

由市售的环氧丙氧基丙基三甲氧基硅烷（GPS）改性的二氧化硅纳米粒子（SiNPs）（Bindzil®CC301和Bindzil®CC302）制备的薄膜涂料先前已显示出对多种微生物的优异防污性能[Molino等， “生物污垢的水合层结构耐纳米颗粒，” ACS纳米12，11610（2018）]。在这项工作中，单细胞力光谱法（SCFS）被用于测量黑Epi之间的生物相互作用前述研究中使用的真菌孢子和相同的基于二氧化硅纳米粒子的表面，包括：玻璃盖玻片，未修饰的SiNP涂层以及低（Bindzil®CC301）和高密度（CC302）GPS功能化的SiNP涂层随NaCl浓度的变化。从SCFS曲线来看，在所有盐浓度下，盖玻片（20–80 nN）上孢子对表面的附着力最大，其次是未修饰的SiNP（3–5 nN）。在接近两个表面时，这些孢子通常表现出具有生物相互作用的轮廓特征的远距离吸引力，并且可能具有外部细胞壁结构或生物成分的轮廓特征。吸引力使孢子最初附着在表面上，并且发现与孢子的附着力成线性比例。相比下，高密度和低密度GPS-SINP均会显着降低孢子附着力（0.5–0.9 nN）。此外，高密度GPS-SiNP上的孢子粘附仅发生在SCFS曲线的14％–27％（低密度GPS-SiNP为40％–48％），而未修饰的SiNP则为83％–97％，这表明在大多数情况下，GPS功能完全可以防止孢子粘附。相反，GPS-SiNP表面在低1mM NaCl中显示出远距离静电斥力，而在较高盐浓度下被短距离斥力所取代。根据发现，提出吸引力是孢子初始粘附过程中的关键步骤。GPS的有效防污特性归因于其能够消除吸引力，