Poly( N ‐isopropylacrylamide) Self‐Fabricated Coating for Marine Anti‐Biofouling

Abstract Titanium (Ti) or Ti alloy pipelines have been increasingly used in seawater cooling systems of marine facilities and offshore equipments due to their high corrosion resistance, specific strength, and fatigue resistance. However, their good biocompatibility renders them high susceptibility to marine biofouling, which can block the pipeline system and reduce its cooling efficiency. Self‐fabricated coating is presented based on poly( N ‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) to combat marine biofouling in titanium seawater pipeline systems. When PNIPAM solution in seawater is applied onto the Ti surface by flushing, PNIPAM chains would be adsorbed on the inner wall of the pipe and self‐fabricate into a coating due to the coordination interactions between nitrogen in PNIPAM and Ti as well as the hydrophobic interactions from hydrocarbon moieties of PNIPAM. Self‐fabrication is confirmed by quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The coating exhibits good anti‐biofouling with ≈99% antibacterial rate, while it does not reduce the corrosion resistance of titanium. The coating can serve more than 10 days at a flow velocity of 0.3 m s −1 and continue to work once it is regenerated by flushing the PNIPAM solution. This study provides a facile approach to protect the titanium pipeline from marine biofouling.