AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Biofilms are aggregates of microorganisms embedded in a matrix newlineof extracellular polysaccharides They are formed due to the colonization of newlinesurfaces by bacterial cells There is a need to study the factors that are crucial newlinefor biofilm formation because they have been known to cause failure of newlineimplants and also heavy losses in food dairy oil and paper industries Earlier newlinestudies on bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation involved the use of cell newlinecounting, staining or confocal microscopy techniques Atomic Force newlineMicroscopy provides another alternative since it can be used to study the newlineadhesion force of biofilms newlineThe Atomic Force Microscope was created to address the newlinelimitations of Scanning Tunnelling Microscope since the Scanning Tunnelling newlineMicroscope could only be used for imaging conductive samples in vacuum newlineIt also scores over other techniques like Scanning Electron Microscope since newlineit can be operated in air or fluid environments rather than in vacuum This newlineallows the study of biological samples in conditions close to their newlinephysiological state newlinePorous Silicon was discovered by Uhlir when he was trying to newlinedevelop an electrochemical method to machine silicon wafers Since then newlinePorous Silicon has been fabricated by electrolytically etching crystalline newlinesilicon using aqueous or non aqueous electrolytes containing hydrofluoric newlineacid newline%%%appendix p73-119, reference p120-137.