Emerging trends in self-polishing anti-fouling coatings for marine environment

The structural parts of marine architectures permanently submerged in sea-water (such as underwater pipelines, oil well-heads, platforms, ship-hulls, barges, jetties and so on) are basically made of metals, alloys, composites, blends and other materials. These architectures are prone to severe and deteriorative biofouling because their interactions with aquatic organisms on wet environment initiates the biofouling activities. Also, the consequential implications of biofouling on ship hulls, for example, adversely affects its hydrodynamics (that is, it escalates the basic propulsive power), increases the degree of fuel consumption with excessive cost on routine maintenance and repair or replacement. Thus, control of bio-spread of aquatic organisms on marine architectures is possible through numerous techniques. However, the most anti-fouling systems are fundamentally based on the use of protective coatings. The prohibition of applications of tributyltin (TBT) in submarine coatings in 2001 by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), because of its negative environmental implications and subsequent replacement with ecobenign anti-fouling coatings, has paved way for nanotechnological advancement and novel trends in polymer science. Consequently, the technological advancement in the new surface designs attained through bioinspiration from nature are anticipated to significantly influence the development of new genre of ecobenign marine coatings. Therefore, this paper critically elucidates emerging trends in anti-fouling coatings for hindering the biological fouling of marine architectures.