Electric double layer interactions in bacterial adhesion to surfaces

The DLVO (Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey, Overbeek) theory was originally developed to describe interactions between non-biological lyophobic colloids such as polystyrene particles, but is also used to describe bacterial adhesion to surfaces. Despite the differences between the surface of bacteria and that of non-biological particles, DLVO-descriptions of bacterial adhesion have nearly always treated bacteria as if they were non-biological particles and consequently in many cases these descriptions have failed to describe bacterial adhesion adequately. This review summarizes recent advances in colloid and surface science regarding the electrokinetic characterization of biological colloids, most notably bacteria, and their electric double layer interactions with surfaces.