Conventional silicone coating improved by novel bioinspired microcavity arrays: Generating stable air bubble arrays for gas-liquid interface antifouling

Fouling release coatings are ineffective or low effective without fast enough flowing seawater for vessels with low-speed cruising and other offshore stationary facilities. Therefore, antifouling in static waters has always been a problem to overcome. Inspired by the reentrant structure of springtail, the microcavity with opening arrays were successfully constructed on the surface of conventional silicone coating. The novel antifouling mechanism of prepared coating is to deceive the detection system of fouling organisms and separate biofouling from coating through the gas-liquid biphase interface of air bubbles generated by the microcavity arrays. Benefiting from aforementioned special antifouling mechanism, the prepared bioinspired coating showed an excellent resistance to marine bacteria and benthic diatoms. The air bubble arrays produced by microcavity structure can exist stably under static water conditions, which provides a novel and promising solution for static antifouling of vessels and offshore facilities.

Automated summary

Inspired by the reentrant structure of springtail, researchers have developed a coating with microcavities that use gas-liquid bubbles to prevent biofouling. This bioinspired coating showed excellent resistance to marine bacteria and benthic diatoms in static water conditions, providing a promising solution for static antifouling of vessels and offshore facilities.