Polymeric Coatings Based on Water-Soluble Trimethylammonium Copolymers for Antifouling Applications.

Artemis Tsagdi,Joannis K Kallitsis,Vlasoula Bekiari,Pavlos Avramidis,Denisa Druvari,Dionisios Panagiotaras

doi:10.3390/molecules25071678

Abstract

Crosslinked polymeric materials based on a quaternary trimethylammonium compound were developed and evaluated as potential antifouling coatings. For this purpose, two water-soluble random copolymers, poly(4-vinylbenzyltrimethylammonium chloride-co-acrylic acid) P(VBCTMAM-co-AAx) and poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide-co-glycidylmethacrylate) P(DMAm-co-GMAx), were synthesized via free radical polymerization. A water based approach for the synthesis of P(VBCTMAM-co-AAx) copolymer was used. Coatings of the complementary reactive copolymers in different compositions were obtained by curing at 120 °C for one day and were used to coat aquaculture nets. These nets were evaluated in respect to their release rate using Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Total Nitrogen (TN) measurements. Finally, the antifouling efficacy of these newly-composed durable coatings was investigated for 14 days in accelerated conditions. The results showed that this novel polymeric material provides contact-killing antifouling activity for a short time period, whereas it functions efficiently in biofouling removal after high-pressure cleaning.

Highlights

The development of biofouling in marine aquaculture applications represents a crucial financial and ecological problem
Precursor copolymers were synthesized via conventional free radical polymerization using AIBN
These results suggest that a fraction of the polymeric material, consisted of either uncrosslinked compositions, Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Total Nitrogen (TN) increase within the first few hours and remain rather constant

Summary

Introduction

The development of biofouling in marine aquaculture applications represents a crucial financial and ecological problem. Any object immersed in the sea is rapidly colonized by a wide variety of organisms [1,2]. These bioaccumulations have adverse effects on surfaces submerged in the aquatic environment such as shipping vessels, aquaculture cages, offshore rigs and jetties [3]. In the case of aquaculture industry, biofouling has significant impacts on culture species, on farm infrastructure (immersed structures such as cages and netting) as well as on the natural ecosystem [4]. In order to combat this problem, the aquaculture industry needs to develop optimized biofouling management technologies. The development of biofouling on the nets, which blocks the mesh openings, is treated with

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Conclusion