INTRODUCTION
One of the most important problems in the protection of ships’ hulls is FOULING, which is formed by vegetable and/or animal organisms, which settle on submerged artificial substrates in marine environments.
The prevention of fouling may be obtained by antifouling paints (AF paints), which leach toxic compounds or biocides. It prevents settlement of fouling organisms by maintaining a lethal concentration at the painted surface. Hence, the AF paints have to allow a gradual dissolution of the toxic compounds. This conflicts with legislation designed to reduce the environmental impact due to released biocides.
In this work the characterisation of both traditional and innovative AF paint systems was carried out by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and adhesion measurements.