Biomimetic approach to anti-fouling surfaces

Scale formation is recognized as one of the major problems affecting production in the oil and gas sector. There are many approaches to remove and prevent scaling with chemical inhibition, chemical scale removers and mechanical
methods being the most prevalent ones. Recently the focus has shifted onto more environmentally friendly inhibitors that are less toxic to the environment, thus the
development of green inhibitors. Another way forward is to turn to surface engineering - this is a very popular approach in the control of biofouling but only a
few attempts have been made to use it for the purpose of scale inhibition. It is fair to say that there is a potential for more widespread study and exploitation of such
systems.

Biomimetics in surface engineering is receiving more attention as nature provides surfaces with a whole range of functionality. In the present work, microand
nano-structured polymers surfaces with the self-cleaning Lotus and antireflective Moth-eye effects have been assessed as potential surfaces able to reduce mineral scale deposition. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) was deposited onto
them and their performance compared with reference stainless steel surfaces. In addition, the anti-scaling performance of three commercially available coatings –
DLC, Tech 100 and Tech 23 was also investigated. The surfaces were tested in a rotating cylinder electrode (RCE) under different fluid hydrodynamic conditions i.e.
both laminar to turbulent flow.

Last but not least, micro-adhesion tests under water were conducted in an attempt to relate deposition tests to the adhesion properties of a single CaCO3 crystal against a surface as a measure of anti-scaling performance.