Room temperature synthesis of defective cerium oxide for efficient marine anti-biofouling

Mimicking marine algae to prevent marine biofouling on the submerged surface of engineering materials represents an alternative and promising approach to conventional toxic anti-biofouling strategy. Here, a novel CeO2 is synthesized by a simple room temperature approach. The as-synthesized CeO2 with rich oxygen vacancies exhibits significantly higher intrinsic haloperoxidase-like activity than the conventional CeO2 in catalyzing the bromination reaction of organic substrates, with a bromination reaction rate of 0.13 µM min−1 at a concentration of 0.05 mg mL−1. In the presence of Br− and H2O2 oxidant, CeO2 demonstrates significant antibacterial efficacies against both Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus, with a significant antibacterial efficiency of 88% and 90%, respectively. Field tests reveal that the plates containing the defective CeO2 (5 wt.%) can effectively hinder the marine biofouling in open ocean. This work provides a promising approach for the development of effective and green marine inorganic anti-foulants at room temperature. Defective CeO2 demonstrates haloperoxidase-like activity towards the catalytic oxidation of bromide, highlighting the potential application towards marine anti-biofouling.