STTR Phase I: Next Generation Of Environmental-Friendly Marine Coating With Superior Durability And Antifouling Performance

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be the development of a coating product with superior durability and antifouling performance in the targeted environmental-friendly marine coating market. This innovative solution requires a less frequent application and reduces the amount of subaquatic growth on the hull of ships and static objects in bodies of water. Potential economic benefits include improving fuel efficiency and saving the maintenance cost of ships and static marine structures. At the same time, this product provides enormous environmental benefits by reducing the greenhouse gas emission from cargo ships and avoiding the potential species invasion caused by current marine coatings. In particular, this product is the first non-biocide environmentally friendly product of its kind. It addresses the current and future needs highlighted by global regulations to replace the existing harmful biocide-leaching coatings with an eco-friendly solution. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop and commercialize a novel marine coating product to deliver a high-performing eco-friendly antifouling solution that is currently lacking in the marketplace. Current self-polishing coating products were subject to increasing regulatory restriction, while alternative environmental-friendly option such as fouling-release coating suffered low antifouling performance. This novel coating technology potentially achieves the durability and high antifouling performance for targeted marine applications, and the eco-friendly feature without leaching biocide into the aqueous environment. The objective of this project is to explore the key fabrication factors in coating formulation and identify their impacts on the coating stability and antifouling performance. Critical knowledge will be obtained enables the development of prototype product showing year-long reliability and top marine antifouling function. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.