Degradable Polyurethane Carrying Antifoulant For Inhibition Of Marine Biofouling

In this thesis, we have prepared two types of degradable polyurethane materials via acombination of thiol-ene click reaction and an condensation reaction. Our aim is to provideuseful information for development of environment-friendly marine anti-biofouling materials.The main results are as follows:Firstly, poly(ε-caprolactone)(PCL) based polyurethane with 2-(dimethylamino)ethylmethacrylate(DEM) as side groups has been prepared by a combination of thiol-eneclick reaction and an condensation reaction. By use of quartz crystal microbalance withdissipation(QCM-D) and surface plasmon resonance(SPR), we have investigated theadsorption of fibrinogen, bovine serum albumin(BSA), and lysozyme on the polyurethanesurface. The results show that the polyurethane exhibits protein resistance in seawater but notin fresh water because the charge-screening from the high salinity of seawater and thehydrophilicity from DEM. We also evaluated the antibacterial adhesion of the polyurethaneby using Micrococcus luteus(M. luteus), and found that the polyurethane can effectivelyinhibit the adhesion of the marine bacteria. On the other hand, the polyurethane exhibitsenzymatic degradation in artificial seawater, indicating the protein resistant material is notharmful for marine environment.We have also prepared biodegradable polyurethane with N-(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl)maleimide(TCPM) pendant groups via a combination of thiol-ene click reaction andcondensation reaction. The TCPM moieties acting as antifouants are released as thepolyurethane degrades in marine environment. The biodegradation and hydrolyzation of thepolyurethane were investigated by use of quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation(QCM-D) and hydrolysis experiments. It shows both the enzymatic degradation rate and thehydrolyzation rate decreases with TCPM content, which facilitates increasing the duration ofthe polyurethane. Marine field tests reveal that the polyurethane has good antifouling abilitysince the degradation leads to a self-renewal surface and the release of the antifoulants iscontrolled.