Natural Product Inspired Environmentally Friendly Strategy Based on Dopamine Chemistry toward Sustainable Marine Antifouling

[Image: see text] The combination of natural active antifouling composition and intelligent coatings has been regarded as a prospective approach to avoid marine biofouling. However, the relatively complex coating structure and the excessive rapid release of antifoulants maintain unresolved issues in their practical application. In this work, a novel environmentally friendly natural antifoulant (Stellera chamaejasme, SC) encapsulated in the polydopamine (PDA) microcapsule (SC@PDA) is prepared by emulsion interfacial polymerization and blended with the acrylate polymer to prepare a sustainable antifouling coating. Herein, the PDA shell acting as an “intelligent capsule” ensures the controlled release of the antifoulant SC, and the corresponding SC loading amount could be high up to 75.40%. As a model antifoulant, the impact of SC on the adsorption activity of the protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) is studied, as well as the settlement of presentative fouling communities (diatom Navicula sp. and red algae Porphyridium sp.) on the constructed coating. The experimental results demonstrate that the natural product SC integrated eco-friendly antifouling coating occupies the superior capacity of impeding the adsorption of both protein BSA and algae. Such antifoulant (SC) integrating with controlled release character is a great advance in terms of marine antifouling applications. It is, therefore, expected that this innovation will provide guiding significance for developing the next generation of antifouling techniques, especially in the field of marine antifouling.