Effectiveness of spray-pyrolyzed hydrophobic WO3 coating on stainless steel against blue-green algae growth

In this contribution, WO3 coating was deposited on stainless steel (SS) substrate through a facile spray pyrolysis technique, followed by octadecyl-trichlorosilane (OTS) treatment for attaining hydrophobic surface. The presence of chemisorbed OTS and WO3 coating was confirmed by Raman and FTIR analysis. The OTS-treated WO3-coated SS displayed hydrophobicity and good efficacy against the growth of blue-green algae (phormidium sp.) with a minute attachment of ∼ 0.6 % of the total area when immersed in culture medium for seven days. Whereas, the uncoated SS exhibited an algae attachment of ∼ 24 %. The results offered the potentiality towards anti-biofouling coating against the algae growth.