Cyclosiloxane Hybrid Polymer as a Robust Transparent Eco-friendly Anti-fouling Coating
Abstract
Anti-fouling coating is the most widely used approach to mitigate the negative impacts caused by marine biofouling. Here, the present study demonstrated cyclosiloxane-hybrid polymer (CHP) as a possible anti-fouling coating for submerged surfaces in seawater. The smooth surface of CHP has a low Rtm value of 0.79 nm, reducing the available anchoring point for marine micro-organisms and the extracellular polymeric substances attachment, hence preventing biofilm formation. CHP coating showed generic anti-fouling against micro-organisms of different size and shape. The pseudo-barnacle adhesion tests showed that CHP has a strength of 0.06 MPa, which is lower than that of most coating materials, such as Sylgard 184. Moreover, the CHP coating had an adhesion strength of 1.85 MPa, 2.94 fold of that of Sylgard 184. After 15 days of immersion, no significant decrease in adhesion strength of CHP could be observed while 33% decrease was observed for Sylgard 184. The robust CHP coating retained its adhesion strength to fiber reinforced epoxy and high transparency after 15 days of immersion in diatom suspension. The present study provides an ecofriendly solution for marine biofouling, and a candidate for further advanced anti-fouling coating design. After 24 h of immersion in concentrated Navicula exigua suspension, few cells could be observed on the surface of CHP, whereas much more cells attached to the surfaces of Sylgard 184 and E51.
