Self-repairing and anti-fouling performance of anticorrosive coating in marine environment

Microcrack damage repair and microbial contamination prevention are two major challenges for anti-corrosion coatings on the surfaces of underwater installations. In this study, water-triggered self-healing microcapsules were combined with low-surface-energy fluoropolymers to prepare a bifunctional anti-corrosion coating with underwater self-healing and bio-fouling properties. The results showed that the prepared microcapsules had good mechanical, thermal, and environmental stability, with an average diameter of 153 μm and an encapsulation rate of 66.7%. When the microcapsule content in the coating was 8 wt%, the microcapsule dispersion performance and healing barrier effect of the composite coating were optimal, and the repair efficiency reached 81.6%. Furthermore, compared with the coating without microcapsules or graft fluoropolymers (PFG), the sample denoted as PFG18/4/IPDI-MC/ER showed the largest surface water contact angle and had the best protein inhibition rate of 87% when using bovine hemoglobin to detect the protein adsorption concentration on the coating surface.