Properties which influence marine fouling resistance in polymers containing silicon and fluorine

Our research strives to understand and construct polymer surfaces with no inherent power to interact with other materials, especially with the biological polymers used by marine organisms to bind themselves to objects in the sea. During the past 15 years we have synthesized polymers, formulated them into coatings, and measured their resistance to marine fouling in both static and dynamic testing. The polymer surface property which has been most frequently correlated with bioadhesion is critical surface tension (gamma(c)); in fact, a generalized relationship between gamma(c) and marine fouling has been known for more than twenty years. However, this behavior is also influenced by other bulk and surface properties of the polymer. This paper presents several alternative interpretations of the relationship between gamma(c) and bioadhesion, and uses these insights to develop requirements for polymers which refuse or resist strong bonds to other materials. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.