Abstract
The anti-fouling character of polymer brushes against marine organisms was investigated by performing settlement tests with barnacle cypris larvae and mussel larvae in their adhesion period, as well as a marine bacteria colonization test. The settlement behavior of the marine organisms was carefully observed during the assays to obtain insight into the anti-fouling character. Zwitterionic poly(phosphobetaine) brushes and poly(sulfobetaine) brushes exhibited excellent anti-fouling characteristics for both macro- and micro-organisms, whereas poly(quaternary ammonium cation) brushes allowed mussel larvae settlement and bacteria adhesion. Regardless of the surface free energy and chain mobility, all of the hydrophobic polymer brushes showed poor anti-fouling character for the marine organisms tested. The surface charge and hydration state in saline seawater appear to be important factors in the versatile anti-fouling performance of zwitterionic polyelectrolyte brushes.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Dr Kamiya (Sessile Research Corp.) for assistance with the marine organism settlement tests and helpful discussions. We appreciate Dr Kevin L. White's assistance with English editing. This research was partially supported by the Adaptable and Seamless Technology Transfer Program through Target-driven R&D (No. AS2511206M), Japan Science and Technology Agency, JST.
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Higaki, Y., Nishida, J., Takenaka, A. et al. Versatile inhibition of marine organism settlement by zwitterionic polymer brushes. Polym J 47, 811–818 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2015.77
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2015.77
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