Nano-CeO2-Loaded Polyzwitterionic Double-Network High-Strength Hydrogel for Highly Enhanced Synergistic Marine Antifouling

Althoughmany antibiofouling materials have been developed basedon either bacterial-killing or antiadhesion effects, the integrationof both the effects in one material remains challenging for achievinghighly enhanced synergistic antibiofouling. In this study, we haveexplored a nano-CeO2-loaded double-network hydrogel byintroducing CeO2 nanorods into a polyzwitterionic hydrogelvia a simple one-pot method for achieving highly efficient antifouling.First, the CeO2 nanorods dispersed in the hydrogel, asan outstanding nanozyme, have highly efficient bacterial-killing performance.Second, the superhydrophilic polyzwitterionic hydrogel provides adense hydrated layer on the surface and subsequently excellent broad-spectrumantiadhesion behavior. Most importantly, the bacterial killing andantiadhesion of this hydrogel can work synergistically to largelyimprove the marine-antifouling performance. Moreover, the double-networkstructure of this hydrogel, including the covalently cross-linkedpolyzwitterion hard network and the physically cross-linked poly(vinylalcohol) soft network, can provide greatly improved mechanical properties(2.44 MPa of tensile strength reaches and 21.87 MPa of compressivestrength). As a result, among the existing marine-antifouling hydrogels,the CeO2-loaded polyzwitterionic double-network hydrogelcan achieve outstanding antifouling performance, which can sustainfor over 6 months in a real marine environment. This work providesa promising marine-antifouling hydrogel, which will also inspire antifoulingresearch of a new strategy and materials.