Antifouling Paint Of Furan Modified Organosilicon-acrylate/nano-TiO₂ On Vessels

As more and more attention was paid to protect marine environments along with the deadline of TBT self-polishing antifouling(A/F) paint in 2008, the leading paint manufacturers have to focus on designing, developing and preparing many new types of high-efficient and environmentally benign A/F coatings. Thereinto, low surface energy A/F coatings is one of most promising A/F coatings in the new future.In order to expand the broad-spectrum of efficiency of low surface energy A/F coatings, a novel A/F polymer, namely, furan modified organosilicon-acylate was synthesized by grafting bioactive furan-ring onto the backbone of organosilicon-acylate. The tests of infrared spectropy(IR), gel permeation chromatography(GPC), and scanning electron microscopy(SEM) shew that: Furan-ring could be built into the chain of organosilicon-acylate. M_w =91703 with profile distribution 2.5685 . The smooth film of resin meets all the basic requirements of bonders which are applied into paints.Antimicrobial assays were accomplished with escherichia coli and bacillus subtilis. It was indicated that: modified organosilicon-acylate, brominated furan and nano-TiO₂ all exhibit excellent antibacterial performance.The new A/F coatings were prepared with furan modified organosilicon-acylate as bonders and brominated furan as antifoulant. Furthermore, solvents, assistants, nano-TiO₂ and other pigments and fillers were mixed at the same time. Then a series of corresponding inspections, for instance, IR, contact angle(CA), SEM, tests of mechanical properties and antifouling assays in seawater were finished. Therefore, based on analyzing by orthogonal and optimized methods, some conclusions were drawed as follows: The contact angles decrease significantly with increase of amount of modified resin. The addition of nano-TiO₂ does not affect contact angle significantly in general. Brominated furan and nano-TiO₂ improve the antifouling performance of low surface free energy coatings apparently. The optimal result is that: furan modified organosilicon-acylate 49 wt.%,nano-TiO₂ 11 wt.% and silicon oil 6 wt.%;CA=99.45°;The root of the low surface energy attributes to the micro-rough and hydrophobic film which is rich in papillas and grooves with micro- and nano-meter diameters on base of observing and anylyzing of superficial morphology by SEM and optical microscope.