Daniel Espinola, Seth Curtin, Dr. Caryl Ann Becerra, & Dr. Brian Rasnow
Earth consists of approximately 70% ocean, and due to this, about 90% of the world’s freight transportation occurs there. In the U.S. alone, there has been $2.7 billion worth of corrosion damage to ships. If we include all direct corrosion costs in the U.S., that number skyrockets to $276 billion dollars worth of damage. Continuing the research on the qualitative data we achieved from previous COAST research, which shows the properties of B. subtilis biofilm inhibiting the corrosion process of steel chips and the opposite being true of P. lipolytica and P. fluorescens, we plan on getting more quantitative data. We will select a variety of steel or aluminum alloys commonly used near or in ocean water and allow a biofilm to grow on each one. For each metal and biofilm combination, we will have a blank control, one submerged in sterilized ocean water and one in unsterilized ocean water. Using techniques such as the scanning vibrating electrode (SVET), we plan to get quantitative data on corrosion indication by mapping out an electric potential field after electrochemically corroding it. Multiples of the same sample will undergo other testing, such as getting topological images of the material using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fluorescence to quantify cell amounts. This process will be repeated for each one after 1, 3, and 10 days of growing the biofilm.