Spatially Organized Nanopillar Arrays Dissimilarly Affect the Antifouling and Antibacterial Activities of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus

Bacterial attachment and proliferation on surfaces threaten human health and negatively impact the medical, food processing, and marine industries. In this study, we synthetically produced bioinspired nanotopographies to probe the structure–property relationship between feature size/spacing and the outcome behavior of two distinct microorganisms, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Two different poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) pillar arrays with characteristic pitches of 480 and 1100 nm were fabricated using nanoimprint lithography, which is a low-cost, scalable, and time-efficient method to create numerous replicates from one precious master mold. The effect that the pillar arrays had on the short-term antifouling activity, viability, and/or patterning of the two microorganisms was determined and compared to that of flat PDMS surfaces. The larger P1100 pillar arrays showed antifouling behavior against the larger microbe, E. coli, whereas the same pillars spontaneously patterned the smaller S. aureus cells. Smaller P480 nanopillar arrays expressed bactericidal effects toward E. coli, whereas antifouling behavior was observed for S. aureus. This work aims to improve our basic understanding of how microorganisms interact with bioinspired nanotopographies as well as contribute to the development of engineered surfaces that can be used in industrial settings to control microbial attachment and/or viability.