Preparation and evaluation of amphiphilic polymer as fouling-release coating in marine environment

Abstract

Polystyrene–polybutadiene–polystyrene (SBS), vinyl fluoride silicone (BD-FT-LSR) and polyethylene glycol were chosen as the reactors to synthesize amphiphilic polymer which was used to prepare a new type of fouling-release coating. To evaluate the fouling-release performance and explore the mechanism of the coating, artificial and real-sea environment tests were carried out in the experiments, respectively. IR and 1H NMR were utilized to characterize the structure of the polymer. The effect of fouling-release agent was explored by considering changes in the parameters of surface contact angle, XPS, elastic modulus, and TEM. Results of real-sea tests show that the new amphiphilic fouling-release coating has a very good antifouling performance and can be re-cleaned after 6 months of testing in the real-sea environment. These can be explained through hydrophilic PEG migrating to the surface to form a comb-type structure which reduces the adhesion strength of fouling organisms that can then be self-cleaned by flow from the surface of coatings.