Novel environment-friendly grease-infused porous surface exhibiting long-term cycle effective antifouling performance

Abstract With the increasingly strict requirements for marine environmental protection, the demand for antifouling coatings that can replace organotin is becoming more urgent. Here, environmentally friendly lubricants were infused into porous surfaces to obtain antifouling coating. The stability of the coating was evaluated by the contact angle and sliding angle tests. The antifouling performance was intuitively represented by the adhesion quantity of three marine algae. The adhesion experiment showed that a lubricating oil of suitable viscosity balanced stability and lubricity, so that the silicone oil (PMX200-100)-infused surface showed the best antifouling effect. However, it was covered by Navicula exigua (N. exigua) after a long time of immersion. In our work, the grease-infused surface displayed outstanding stability in water. In addition, the grease-infused porous surface showed another state of algae attachment after a period of immersion in algae solution. Algae adhered to the surface and congregated to form a layer of biofilm, but it could be easily removed and re-expose the new grease-infused surface. The requirement of lubricating grease for porous surface structures is not as high as that of lubricating oil. The grease-infused surface has a long-term circulation antifouling effect on algae.