The undesired adhesion of biomass on solid substrates submerged in liquid environments (biofouling) causes enormous financial losses worldwide. The biofouling could be prevented by an appropriate physicochemical surface modification, which is a well established and environmentally-friendly approach. Here, we report an artful quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) based method for qualitative in-situ assessment of the anti-fouling potential of a variety of functional coatings. For that purpose, three groups of 5 MHz QCMs, coated with diamond-like carbon (DLC), fluorocarbon-functionalized diamond-like carbon (FFDLC) and carbon soot, are immersed in aqueous suspensions of four biofoulants such as red Polysiphonia and green Scenedesmus algae, cells of diatom Navicula and filamentous cyanobacteria Oscillatoria. The analysis of the resonance frequency and dynamic resistance fluctuations for each sensor group reveals that the QCMs are capable of detecting the differences in the thermodynamics of cell adhesion and the settlement affinity of biofoulants, depending on the coatings' physicochemical properties. In particular, the soot's superhydrophobicity and nanoscale surface topography completely prevent the biofouling and the soot coated QCMs show relatively unaltered sensor signal during the probing cycles. These findings are an excellent foundation for further incorporation of diverse biofouling assays on miniature and portable sensor devices. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.