This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop an environmentally benign yet highly effective marine antifouling coating for the American yacht market. The coating is a non-biocidal, foul release surface which does not require the vessel to move to obtain antifouling protection. It is a non-ablative multi-modal coating that will deter settling marine larvae when the vessel is stationary and will eliminate any attached marine organisms, such as barnacles through self-cleaning (e.g. fouling release) while underway. The commercial impact of the innovation will be in reducing consumption of non-renewable resources through increased fuel efficiency and possible expansion into additional markets. Such additional markets would include those for commercial vessels, Navy vessels, bridges, windmills, etc., while successfully reducing harmful chemicals in the marine environment. The market for these coatings is expected to double in the next four years, currently being at $10.2 billion. The findings from this development work will also be incorporated into research based educational programs. The intellectual merit of this project is the development of a promising synthetic conopeptide analog to the noradrenaline (NA) molecule. Prior art has shown that NA, when bound to a surface (or included as part of a coating covering a surface), deters fouling marine invertebrates from settling, thus preventing biofouling. Another distinct advantage of using conopeptide based systems is their stability in the marine environment. The current efforts are focused upon improving the efficacy and antifouling performance of these molecules. The phase I research objectives are (1) conjugation of the bioactive conopeptide additive to the current foul release coating; (2) demonstration of antifouling efficacy and proof of concept by bioassay; (3) development of batch coatings for scale-up for marine field tests. The results will be useful for designing new test coatings for scale up and testing in the marine environment.
