Facile fabrication of self-healing silicone-based poly(urea-thiourea)/tannic acid composite for anti-biofouling

• Published in: Journal of materials science & technology 2022-10, Vol.124, p.1-13
• Main Authors: Sun, Jiawen, Liu, Chao, Duan, Jizhou, Liu, Jie, Dong, Xucheng, Zhang, Yimeng, Wang, Ning, Wang, Jing, Hou, Baorong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Hydrogen bonding; Marine antifouling; Poly(dimethylsiloxane); Poly(urea-thiourea); Self-healing; Tannic acid
• ISSN: 1005-0302; 1941-1162
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2022.01.026

•A novel composite of silicone-based poly(urea-thiourea) and tannic acid is prepared by a facile method.•The composite presents a tough and highly stretchable performance.•The composite exhibits a fast self-healing property at room temperature in both air and artificial sea water.•The coating based on the composite shows a strong adhesion strength to substrates.•The coating exhibits a good antibacterial property and favorable anti-diatom performance. A novel silicone-based poly(urea-thiourea)/tannic acid composite (PDMS-P(Ua-TUa)-TA) with excellent mechanical, self-healing and antifouling properties is developed. The multiple dynamic hydrogen bonds formed by thiourea groups, urea groups, and tannic acid (TA) molecules ensured a tough elastomer (ultimate strength: 2.47 MPa) with high stretchability (∼1000%). TA molecules as partial hydrogen bonding cross-linking sites interacted rapidly with urea and thiourea groups before the migration of polymer chains, resulting in fast and efficient self-healing. Scratches on the film completely disappeared within 12 min, and the repair efficiency of strength was up to 98.4% within 3 h under ambient condition. Self-healing behavior was also evaluated in artificial seawater and the healing efficiency (HE) was 95.1%. Furthermore, TA uniformly dispersed in the polymer matrix provides good antibacterial and anti-diatom properties, as well as strong adhesion to the substrate (∼2.2 MPa). Laboratory bioassays against marine bacteria adhesion (∼96%, ∼95% and ∼93% reduction for P. sp., E. coli, and S. aureus, respectively) and diatom attachment (∼84% reduction) demonstrated an outstanding antifouling property of the PDMS-P(Ua-TUa)-TA. This work provides a promising pathway towards the development of high-performance silicone-based coatings for marine anti-biofouling. [Display omitted]