Utilization of reactive polymer for development of versatile antifouling coatings

Abstract

Antifouling polymer coatings have important implications for many industrial applications. The most widely employed antifouling polymers are polyethylene glycol (PEG) for foulingresistant and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) for fouling-release. While both types of polymers show antifouling effects, their performance to biofouling is limited. Studies have indicated that amphiphilic copolymers containing both fouling-resistant and fouling-release exhibit synergistic enhanced performances. In this study, we prepared brush copolymers containing PEG and PDMS side-chains by utilizing poly(pentafluorophenyl acrylate) (PPFPA) as a reactive precursor polymer. By utilizing the reactive PFP ester groups, amine-functionalized PEG and PDMS chains are grafted onto the PPFPA backbone to yield copolymers of varied side-chain compositions. The brush copolymers are spin-coated onto silicon wafers, and the surfaces are tested against different biofoulants. In all scenarios, the brush copolymers are found to show better antifouling performances than homopolymer. More importantly, the optimized composition for best performance is determined to be correlated with the size of the foulant.