Biofouling is a significant challenge in submerged aquaculture cage nets and can be managed using inorganic, organic or combined biocides. The difficulty in applying the biocides over non polar polyethylene (PE) is addressed by surface modification using polyaniline (PANI) and organo silane compounds. The study aimed to evaluate the biofouling inhibition efficiency of nano copper oxide and oleamide coating on both polyaniline and 3-glycidyloxypropyl) trimethoxysilane (silane) coated polyethylene. Nano CuO and oleamide were sequentially applied to the surface modified polyethylene using PANI and silane. In silane coated PE, CuO interacted with Si-O bonds, while the amide N-H group of oleamide interacted with C-O-C bonds in the silane. In PANI-coated PE, both biocides strongly interacted with the quinoid moiety of PANI. The treated surfaces exhibited uniform morphologies, and wettability studies showed that the introduction of oleamide made the surface more hydrophobic. The optimum concentration for maximum biofouling inhibition was 0.02% Nano CuO and 0.04% oleamide in silane surface modified PE aquaculture cage net exposed in the estuarine environment. The combined effect of oleamide and nano CuO influenced to deter the micro and macro foulers in aquaculture cage nets.
Ashraf et al. (Thu,) studied this question.