Marine collaborative anti-biofouling study of organicinorganic hybrid modified silicone elastomer with amphiphilic side chains

Environmentally friendly and efficient antifouling silicone elastomers such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) have been widely applied in the marine industry owing to their low surface energy and high elasticity. Nevertheless, silicone elastomers suffer from insufficient mechanical strength, poor water resistance, and unsatisfactory static antifouling performance. In this work, an amphiphilic modified silicone elastomer with self-stratifying, non-leaching, and improved water resistance was successfully prepared by grafting amphiphilic telomers (synthesized from poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether dimethacrylate, dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate, and KH-580) onto bis-silanol-terminated PDMS and incorporating hydrophobically modified sol-gel SiO₂. Grafting of hydrophilic polymers and organic-inorganic hybrid modification on the cross-linked PDMS matrix have contributed to the formation of a copolymer with controlled internal composition and surface-enriched hydrophilic groups, resulting in high-efficiency antifouling and fouling-release properties. Compared with PDMS, the tensile strength and elastic modulus of PDMS-FP-TEOS were increased by 130.5 % and 106.2 %, respectively, while the water absorption was reduced to 1.67 %, a 71.6 % decrease compared with PDMS-FP. The surface hydration layer formed by enriched PEG segments, together with low surface energy of fluorocarbon segments, synergistically endowed the coating with outstanding antifouling performance. The bacterial adhesion rate and diatom adhesion density were reduced by 92.4 % and 74.9 %, respectively, and the protein adsorption amount by >90 %. This study provides a feasible strategy for designing high-performance, environmentally friendly marine antifouling coatings.