Thermally switchable polymers achieve controlled Escherichia coli detachment

YesThe thermally triggered release of up to 96% of attached uropathogenic E. coli is achieved on two polymers with opposite changes in surface wettability upon reduction in temperature. This demonstrates that the bacterial attachment to a surface cannot be explained in terms of water contact angle alone; rather, the surface composition of the polymer plays the key role.Wellcome Trust (grant number 085245) and the NIH (grant number R01 DE016516