Marine Antifouling Coatings Based on Durable Bottlebrush Polymers

We report a next-generation, biocide-free, and durable marine antifouling coating technology. To achieve this, we combined two different polymers previously developed by us. First, we synthesized well-defined 2-hydroxypropyl acrylamide (HPA) based bottlebrush polymers with concentrated polymer brush (CPB) structures, which exhibit excellent bioinertness, and second, we synthesized photoreactive copolymers of 2-hydroxypropyl acrylamide (HPA) and N-benzophenone acrylamide (BPA), which can be cross-linked by exposure to sunlight for 30 min. Simply mixing the bottlebrush polymers with the photoreactive copolymers and applying these as a coating provided a scalable method for achieving effective antifouling properties in one step on a broad range of polymer substrate materials. The resistance of bottlebrushes against acid and base hydrolysis was demonstrated in accelerated degradation experiments at 80 & DEG;C, and the coating thickness was found to be stable after 3 months of incubation in sea water. Optimized coatings prevented cypris larva attachment for up to 9 days and prevented the settling of marine organisms in the sea for up to 73 days. Due to the ease of application, long-term durability, and effective antifouling performance, our bottlebrush coating technology is expected to be exploited in biocide-free marine paints.

Automated summary

The novel marine antifouling coating technology combines bottlebrush polymers and photoreactive copolymers to achieve effective antifouling properties in one step. It has demonstrated stability against acid and base hydrolysis and prevented marine organism attachment for up to 73 days in sea water.