School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, U.K.
Biomacromolecules. 2022 Jun 13;23(6):2697-2712. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.1c01474. Epub 2022 Apr 29.
Biofouling is a major disruptive process affecting the fuel efficiency and durability of maritime vessel coatings. Previous research has shown that amphiphilic coatings consisting of a siloxane backbone functionalized with hydrophilic moieties are effective marine antifouling and fouling-release materials. Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) has been the primary hydrophilic component used in such systems. Recently, the morpholine group has emerged as a promising compact alternative in antifouling membranes but is yet to be studied against marine foulants. In this work, the use of morpholine moieties to generate amphiphilicity in a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)-based antifouling and fouling-release coating was explored. Two separate coating sets were investigated. The first set examined the incorporation of an N-substituted morpholine amine, and while these coatings showed promising fouling-release properties for , they had unusually high settlement of spores compared to controls. Based on those results, a second set of materials was synthesized using an N-substituted morpholine amide to probe the source of the high settlement and was found to significantly improve antifouling performance. Both coating sets included PEG controls with varying lengths to compare the viability of the morpholine structures as alternative hydrophilic groups. Surfaces were evaluated through a combination of bubble contact angle goniometry, profilometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and marine bioassays against two soft fouling species, and , known to have different adhesion characteristics.
生物污损是影响船舶涂层燃油效率和耐久性的主要破坏性过程。先前的研究表明，由带有亲水基团的硅氧烷主链组成的两亲性涂层是有效的海洋防污和防污释放材料。聚乙二醇（PEG）一直是此类系统中主要的亲水成分。最近，吗啉基作为一种有前途的紧凑型替代品在防污膜中出现，但尚未针对海洋污染物进行研究。在这项工作中，探索了在基于聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）的防污和防污释放涂层中使用吗啉基团来产生两亲性。研究了两组不同的涂层。第一组研究了 N-取代吗啉胺的掺入，虽然这些涂层在 时表现出有前途的防污释放性能，但与对照相比，它们的孢子沉降异常高。基于这些结果，使用 N-取代吗啉酰胺合成了第二组材料，以探究高沉降的来源，并发现它显著改善了防污性能。两组涂层都包含具有不同长度的 PEG 对照物，以比较吗啉结构作为替代亲水基团的可行性。通过气泡接触角测角法、轮廓法、X 射线光电子能谱（XPS）和针对两种软污损物种（ 和 ）的海洋生物测定的组合评估了表面，这两种软污损物种已知具有不同的粘附特性。
