Interrupting marine fouling with active buffered coatings

Abstract

Biofouling on marine surfaces causes immense material and financial harm for maritime vessels and related marine industries. Previous reports have shown the effectiveness of amphiphilic coating systems based on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) against such marine foulers. Recent studies on biofouling mechanisms have also demonstrated acidic microenvironments in biofilms and stronger adhesion at low-pH conditions. This report presents the design and utilization of amphiphilic polymer coatings with buffer functionalities as an active disruptor against four different marine foulers. Specifically, this study explores both neutral and zwitterionic buffer systems for marine coatings, offering insights into coating design. Overall, these buffer systems were found to improve foulant removal, and unexpectedly were the most effective against the diatom Navicula incerta.

Keywords:

• Fouling-release surfaces
• antifouling surfaces
• block copolymer
• polydimethylsiloxane
• pH
• zwitterion
• marine-fouling

Author contributions

RM contributed to polymer design, synthesis, coating preparation, surface characterization; ADH contributed to polymer synthesis, coating preparation, and surface characterization; AKL, CKO and GG contributed to polymer and experiment design; EG and EM contributed to coating preparation; MO and CP contributed to F. enigmaticus assays; JAF and ASC contributed to U. linza, B. improvisus, and N. incerta assays. All of us would like to acknowledge the contribution of Peter Allen (U Newcastle) for his work in carrying out barnacle testing on these surfaces. The manuscript was written through contributions of all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was primarily supported by the Office of Naval Research awards N00014-20-1-2248, N00014-23-1-2142, and N00014-23- 1-2188. This work made use of the Cornell Center for Materials Research Shared Facilities which are supported through the NSF MRSEC program (DMR-1719875). This work made use of the Cornell University NMR Facility, which is supported, in part, by the NSF through MRI award CHE-1531632.