Our goal is to design soft- and hard-fouler resistant amphiphilic polymer coatings with tailored chemical functionalities which actively disrupt the cementation and adhesion process of marine foulants. Since no single polymeric building block provides the necessary combination of properties to create a successful, broad spectrum anti-fouling surface, there is a need to identify the guiding principles and design elements that can be used in the creation of broadly effective anti-fouling coatings. To date our amphiphilic surfaces have been very effective in dealing with <i>Ulva linza</i> and <i>Navicula incerta</i> and worked extremely effectively in the laboratory. Our prior results indicate that not only is monomer-scale sequence in polymer chains critical in controlling surface presentation and antifouling behavior, but hydrogen bonding and chain conformation play an important role in the performance of amphiphilic surfaces on soft foulers. To develop these design rules, we are studying PS-block-PDMS AB di- and ABA triblock copolymers that assemble to form the coating surface and exploring new functional groups that provide differing levels of hydrophilicity (e.g. PEG, morpholine units) while incorporating “active” components that interfere with the marine cementation process (e.g. stable radicals). In this presentation we will discuss how we leverage our recent success with amphiphilic polypeptoids against soft foulers to design a coating that is both soft and hard fouler resistant, in order to test multiple strategies for antifouling simultaneously.

Self-assembly as a tool in the creation of antifouling/fouling resistant coatings

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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