Investigation Of Marine Antifouling Coatings Based On Quaternary Ammonium Salts

At present, there are two ways to research and develop new environmentally friendly marine antifouling paint, as show below: On one hand, researchers develop new type antifouling polymer materials to change the properties of resins,such as decreasing surface free energy of the paint so so that marine fouling organism cannot easily attach to the surface of paint, on the other hand, they research environmentally friendly, nontoxic and highly efficient antifouling agents so as to prevent adherence of marine fouling organism to paint’s surface. The development of quaternary ammonium salts antibacterial agents always is environmentally friendly, and continuously satisfies the needs of social development. In our country, researchers have made much more and faster progress in this field. Though, compared with advanced world levels, we still have a large gap to fill compare with the world first-class level, we know we have a long way to go.Organosilicon quaternary ammonium salts is a kind of new cationic surface active agents. In addition to owning the soft texture, physiologically inert and low surface tension of silicone which can withstand oil, acid alkalis, and high temperature, QAS also have quaternary ammonium salt’s bactericidal action. QAS can dissolve both in water and the anion surface active agent, and effectively increase the surface properties of the material, that have been widely used in the disinfection of family and public places, industrial water sterilization to kill the algae, as well as for chemical flotation agents, the fabric soft and antibacterial agent, asphalt emulsifiers, etc., as for in antifouling paints of vessel,there are relatively less research reports about QAS.This paper reviews attachment mechanism of marine fouling organisms, antibacterial mechanism and development of quaternary ammonium salts and so on. Add QAS by two different ways to organic silicon rubber and acrylic lacquer, then prepare coatings to research its surface features, the surface roughness, the static water contact angle, the weightlessness rate and so on with the change of immersion time in seawater. And study the coatings’s antimicrobial variation through immersing the coating in Dalian coastal fresh seawater and in benthic diatoms that trained in the laboratory. Additionally, another two types of quaternary ammonium salt antibacterial agent are selected to add to organic silicon rubber and acrylic lacque to study the variation of the performance of coatings. The results indicate that it is beneficial to the performance of coatings if adding certain amount QAS to the coatings. And it really can prevent marine fouling organisms attaching to the surface of the coatings. The marine bacterial adhesion experiments and benthic diatom experimental methods have great advantages in assisting with evaluation of the performance of coatings.