Methods of assessing antifouling and foulrelease efficacy of non-toxic marine coatings

摘要

The ability to assess the performance of novel, non-toxic coatings is essential to developing environmentally benignrnsolutions to control biofouling, which is the accumulation of organisms on man-made structures in aquaticrnenvironments. In the past decade, the methods for screening experimental coatings have increased and subsequentlyrnimproved the ability to down-select the best candidate coatings rapidly. The standard approaches involve a series ofrnassays that first examine the efficacy of non-toxic coatings as antifouling surfaces by quantifying the settlement ofrnalgal spores and invertebrate larval stages. Following settlement assays, coatings are often tested for their efficacyrnat limiting adhesion (i.e. ‘foul-release’ performance) by using a variety of techniques and marine organisms,rnincluding bacteria, algae and invertebrate larval and adult stages. This overview serves to describe the currentrntechniques and technologies used in assessing marine coatings and acts as a gateway into the primary literature.