PANI-PMMA as cathodic electrode material and its application in cathodic polarization antifouling

- The potential of PANI/PMMA as a cathode material in alkalescent NaCl is verified.
- The electrochemical antifouling effects applied on PANI/PMMA coating is outstanding when added the voltage of − 0.6 V.
- This work suggests the potential of electrochemical antifouling for application on insulated surfaces in industrial settings.

Cathodic voltage applied to metal substrata has been proven to exhibit useful antifouling properties due to the generation of H2O2, where the metal substratum is used as a cathode in the process. However, most metals immersed in a marine environment are protected by insulating (anticorrosive) coatings, restricting the cathodic polarization that can be applied to the metal. In this work, polyaniline-polymethyl methacrylate was found to have good stability and low background current density, as measured by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), chronoamperometry (CA) and cyclic voltammetry (CV), suggesting potential for use of PANI-PMMA as a cathode material. The antifouling effects of the PANI-PMMA coating on 24-h-old Escherichia coli bacteria (E. coli) were measured under different cathodic potentials and different polarization times; the outstanding antifouling effect was verified by fluorescence microscopy.

172