Sun Ye, John Dominic, Yan Yuxin, Feng Xueliang, Wei Qingrong, Ma Chunxin, Liu Zhenzhong, Mao Haimei, Wong Tuck-Whye, Chen Yun
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
Taizhou Key Laboratory of Medical Devices and Advanced Materials, Taizhou Institute of Zhejiang University, Taizhou 318000, China.
Gels. 2025 Mar 14;11(3):203. doi: 10.3390/gels11030203.
Polyzwitterion (PZW) hydrogel has excellent marine anti-biofouling performance, but it is difficult to effectively work for a long time in natural seawater due to its weak mechanical strength. In this study, a new natural rubber (NR)-PZW composite hydrogel has been reported for long-term anti-biofouling by simply dispersing NR latex into the poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (PSBMA) hydrogel network. First of all, owing to the PZW hydrogel network having an anti-polyelectrolyte effect, this NR-PZW hydrogel can provide outstanding anti-biofouling performance, including broad-spectrum anti-bacteria, anti-algae, and anti-protein properties in marine environments. Furthermore, it has a composited natural rubber nanoparticle with a hydrophilic negatively charged outer protein membrane, which can uniformly disperse in the hydrogel to significantly improve its mechanical properties. Therefore, this composited hydrogel can provide not only highly enhanced tensile strength (0.52 MPa) but also ultra-high breaking elongation (738%), which can effectually resist harsh seawater environments. As a result, the NR-PZW composite hydrogel can achieve excellent anti-biofouling performance for more than 3 months within a real marine environment. This work can provide an excellent, robust polyzwitterionic hydrogel for long-term marine anti-biofouling, which will also inspire new strategies for anti-biofouling materials.
聚两性离子（PZW）水凝胶具有优异的海洋抗生物污损性能，但由于其机械强度较弱，难以在天然海水中长期有效发挥作用。在本研究中，通过将天然橡胶（NR）胶乳简单分散到聚（甲基丙烯酸磺酸甜菜碱）（PSBMA）水凝胶网络中，报道了一种新型的NR-PZW复合水凝胶用于长期抗生物污损。首先，由于PZW水凝胶网络具有抗聚电解质效应，这种NR-PZW水凝胶在海洋环境中可提供出色的抗生物污损性能，包括广谱抗菌、抗藻和抗蛋白质特性。此外，它具有一种复合天然橡胶纳米颗粒，其外部蛋白质膜带负电荷且具有亲水性，能够均匀分散在水凝胶中以显著提高其机械性能。因此，这种复合水凝胶不仅可提供高度增强的拉伸强度（0.52 MPa），还具有超高的断裂伸长率（738%），能够有效抵抗恶劣的海水环境。结果，NR-PZW复合水凝胶在真实海洋环境中可实现超过3个月的优异抗生物污损性能。这项工作可为长期海洋抗生物污损提供一种优异、坚固的聚两性离子水凝胶，这也将激发抗生物污损材料的新策略。
