Numerical study on antibacterial effects of bio-inspired nanostructured surface

Natural bactericidal surfaces are found on the wings of cicada and dragonfly that compose of nanopatterns such as nanopillar arrays. Experimental studies have unveiled that the nanopillars can penetrate the bacterial walls or stretch them, resulting in the cell death. This offers an attractive "chemicalfree" and wide-spectrum strategy to fight against bacteriarelated infections and fouling, especially for implant-associated infections(IAIs). However, what is the fundamental mechanism and key factors governing the bactericidal performance of the nanostructured surface is the critical research questions need to be answered to realize its full potential. In this work, we developed mechanical single cell model of bacteria based on finite element analysis (FEA) to simulate the interactions between different strains of bacteria and the nanostructured surface. The nanostructured surface contains nanopillar arrays, which are made of polymer materials. Different strains of bacteria are simulated by adopting the corresponding geometry and material properties from experimental values. The mechanical responses of the bacteria cell on the nanopillar arrays with various configurations are studied based on estimated stress and strain distributions within the cell.