Many successful antifouling paints in recent years have been "self-polishing copolymer" paints based on a polymeric binder to which biocidal tri-organotin moieties are chemically bound and from which the biocidal moieties are gradually hydrolysed by seawater. In such binder systems, the side groups of a linear polymer unit are split off in a first step by reaction with seawater, and the polymer framework that remains becomes water-soluble or water-dispersible as a result. In a second step, the water-soluble or water-dispersible framework at the surface of the paint layer on the ship is washed out or eroded.
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