Bacteria play a crucial role in various natural and industrial processes and their behavior can be unpredictable in different environments. The use of physical, chemical, and thermal stimuli will significantly alter bacterial behavior. Particularly physical stimuli such as mechanical or electrical stimuli have a strong impact on bacterial adhesion, growth, and separation. The electrical stimulation of bacterial surfaces attracted significant attention in recent years and is used as a tool to control the behavior of the bacteria.
In this study, the impact of surface charges on the bacterial behavior on piezoelectric surfaces is investigated. Piezoelectric materials can produce electrical charges when mechanically stimulated and this material behavior is exploited to generate the surface electrical charges. 
A barium titanate (BaTiO3) piezoelectric ceramic membrane is fabricated and a thin layer of selected bacterial culture is coated on the membrane surface. The magnitude of the surface charges, controlled by piezoelectric polarization, is varied to observe their impact on the adhesion and growth behavior of the bacteria. It is clearly observed that through the tuning of piezoelectric properties of the membrane, the behavior of the bacteria (adhesion, growth and separation) can be controlled. This provides a novel approach to tailor the bacteria behaviour in different process and application environments.
This technology has the potential to improve the efficiency and sustainability of various industrial processes, such as bioremediation and biotechnology.