Interfacial Hydration and Barnacle Interaction of New Antifouling Polymers
Abstract
Marine biofouling is caused by the growth of marine organisms such as tubeworms, seaweeds, mussels, and barnacles onto surfaces such as the hulls of the maritime vessels. Biofouling poses many problems to the US Navy, substantially reducing the speed of Navy vessels, increasing the fuel consumption, and resulting in higher cleaning costs for ship hulls. The use of toxic antifouling coatings on Navy vessels can also cause contamination of the marine environment. The goal of this interdisciplinary research is to develop fundamental and molecular level understanding of antifouling mechanisms of newly developed marine antibiofouling polymers, aiding in the design and development of antifouling polymers with improved performance.In this research, sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy will be applied to investigate polymer interfacial molecular structure and hydration, and interactions with barnacle peptides and barnacles. Various newly developed antifouling polymers such as zwitterionic polymers, hydrogels, amphiphilic polymers, slippery silicones etc. will be studied. In addition to SFG, other analytical tools, such as attenuated total reflection (ATR)-FTIR spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) etc. will also be applied in the research to provide supplemental data. Additionally, our experimental results will be compared to computer simulation results to provide further quantitative understanding on interfacial hydration, interfacial structure, and interfacial bio-interaction. This research will be performed in collaboration with many researchers supported by the ONR Environmental Quality Program.From this research, quantitative understanding of interfacial hydration will be achieved by detailed data analysis and the comparison of quantitatively analyzed experimental data with computer simulation results from our collaborators. The kinetics of interfacial hydration will be studied using time dependent experiments to monitor how a polymer surface responds to salt exposure, pH variation, or bio-interaction. During the interactions between polymers andbiological molecules as well as barnacles, the structures of biomolecules at interfaces and their interfacial behavior will be probed and elucidated. In addition, polymer surface structures while in contact with air, water, salt solutions, sea water, biomolecule solutions, and barnacles in situ at the molecular level will be studied and revealed. We will also study the effects a biomolecule or barnacle has on polymer surface rearrangement (e.g., to pull less polar groups to the surface or dehydrate the surface) and its dependence on biomolecule composition, hydrophobicity, and charge will be elucidated. The results obtained from this research on interfacial hydration, interfacial biomolecule behavior, and interfacial polymer response will provide importantfundamental understanding on marine biofouling and polymer antifouling mechanisms, aiding in the rational development of effective antifouling and non-toxic polymer materials for ship hull coatings, which has great future naval relevance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 29, 2020
- Source ID
- N000142012234
Entities
People
- Zhan Chen
Organizations
- Board of Regents of the University of Michigan
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy