Biofouling on heat exchange devices can decrease heat transfer efficiency, corrode materials, and even lead to safety accidents. Most heat exchange devices are made of carbon steel that efficiently produces biofouling. However, in this paper, a nickel–phosphorus–reduced graphene oxide (Ni–P–rGO) coating was prepared on carbon steel by electroless plating to investigate the properties of iron bacteria biofouling. The surface coating was analyzed via scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. After the carbon steel and the Ni–P–rGO coating were immersed into an iron bacteria solution for 120 h, the weight of the iron bacteria biofouling on the Ni–P–rGO coating sharply decreased when compared with the carbon steel. We can conclude that the concentration of graphene can affect the weight of iron bacteria biofouling. We also found that the coating solution with 40 mg/L of graphene performed the best in inhibiting biofouling by decreasing the weight of the biofouling by 97.2% compared to carbon steel.

Biofouling on heat exchange devices can decrease heat transfer efficiency, corrode materials, and even lead safety accidents. Most heat exchange devices are made of carbon steel, which produces biofouling easily. In this paper, nickel-phosphorus-reduced graphene oxide (Ni-P-rGO) coating was prepared on carbon steel by electroless plating as a kind of advanced material to study the properties of iron bacteria biofouling under flowing conditions. The coating was analyzed via scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The properties of iron bacteria biofouling on carbon steel and Ni-P-rGO coating were then compared under flowing conditions. Compared with carbon steel, the asymptotic value of fouling resistance on the Ni-P-rGO coating significantly decreased. Additionally, the induction period and the time of reaching the asymptotic value greatly increased. The inhibition properties of biofouling of advanced materials Ni-P-rGO coating under different temperatures, flow velocities, and initial concentrations was also studied.