PNNL

Abstract

Surface biofouling reduces the efficiency and lifespan of equipment across many industries. Current antifouling coatings are prohibitively expensive or lacking in environmental safety. The development of high-performance antifouling surfaces requires antifouling test methods that can quickly identify superior antifouling surfaces in the laboratory during material development. Existing antifouling test methods poorly discriminate between high-performance coatings. Here we present a quantitative, controlled single thread adhesion test (STAT) method for measuring tensile adhesion of mussel byssal plaques individually, allowing for meaningful comparisons between low adhesion antifouling surfaces. This method provides greater accuracy and finer resolution than push-based mussel shear adhesion methods without the difficulties involved in mussel size, thread attachment angle, or harming the mussels. We demonstrate our single thread tensile method on a variety of standard and high-performance coatings, and we show that our method detects substantial differentiation between commercial foul release coatings that could not be resolved using other methods.