Engineered Living Biofilm with Enhanced Metal Binding Ability for Corrosion Protection in Seawater

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Abstract
Engineering living functional biofilms offers an ecofriendly and efficient technique for the corrosion protection of metallic materials in marine environments. Its firm attachment to the metal surface is a key step to effectively improve the corrosion protection. Herein, engineered Escherichia coli biofilm with strong metal binding ability is constructed by genetically appending a metal binding domain (MBD) to extracellular amyloids. The engineered living biofilm improved the corrosion resistance of X70 carbon steel. Moreover, a biofilm‐induced mineralization layer, mainly composed of calcite, is formed on the X70 surface, which provided a stable corrosion barrier. At the end of 7‐days immersion, the icorr decreased from 5.1 ± 0.4 µA cm−2 without biofilm to 0.5 ± 0.1 µA cm−2 with E. coli MBD biofilm, resulting in a corrosion inhibition efficiency of 90.2%. It also demonstrated the corrosion protection effect for 304 stainless steel, suggesting possible broad applications of the engineered biofilm. The application of synthetic biology offers a novel approach in the development of anti‐corrosion technologies in water environments.
Funding Information
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFA0907300)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (52371056, U2006219)

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