Novel Treatment for Antifouling and Drag Reduction of Ship Hulls

摘要

The research effort explored the extension of AFT (anti-fouling technology), which has been demonstrated on separatory polymer membranes, to the protection of bronze and painted steel substrates that are exposed to marine fouling environments. AFT depends upon deposition on the substrate of assemblies of oriented films of surfactants that are precisely one molecule thick. Results, after only 4 months exposure in an estuarine environment, are not entirely conclusive. In general, barnacles are smaller, barnacle density is lower, and barnacles release more easily if a bronze substrate is protected by films of fluorinated chemicals. Nonfluorinated chemicals appear to resist marine organism attachment early on, but enhance growth of organisms after 2 or 3 months. Comparisons of treated and untreated painted steels offered little difference at this stage of exposure.