Interfacial Molecular Structures and Their Correlations to Marine Anti-biofouling
Abstract
Our research goal is to elucidate interfacial structures of polymers and water at polymer interfaces and their quantitative correlations to marine antifouling performance of new polymer materials designed for marine anti-biofouling coatings. These interfacial structures will be probed using nonlinear optical spectroscopy, sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy, supplemented by several other techniques. Interfaces between various polymers (including zwitterionic polymers, mix charged polymer materials, amphiphilic polymers, and control polymers) and water, phosphate buffer, protein solutions, mussel adhesives, as well as barnacle glues will be examined. Isotope dilution approach will be used to greatly simplify water spectra and an optical microscope will be used along with SFG to study heterogeneous interfaces. We will build a foundation to develop a simple and general means to correlate interfacial water structure to antifouling performance of polymer materials. This method will be widely applicable for new polymers developed for marine anti-biofouling application including those under the development in 6.2 projects. The PI’s group will continue to collaborate extensively with other researchers funded by ONR to improve the design and development of anti-fouling and fouling release polymer coatings. This research is important, innovative, and of great relevance to the Navy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512113
Entities
People
- Zhan Chen
Organizations
- Board of Regents of the University of Michigan
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy