International. A new discovery has been developed by a group of researchers from the University of Gothenburg and the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, based on a marine antifouling paint, friendly to the environment and effective against barnacles.
For scientists, scale is a major problem, as it leads to higher fuel consumption, which increases environmental pollution. It can also cause the spread of exotic species that do not belong to the local marine environment.
Research and development of the coating has taken about nine years and is known as Marine Paint. The approach has been developed on a substance called medetomidine, which has proven effective against barnacles.
To stop other types of scale (algae or molluscs), researchers have created a concept to produce combinations of different antifouling agents or biocides.
These optimized techniques have been combined with high-tech painting systems based on microcapsules made of a polymer material that slowly release biocides from the paint into the water. This painting is known on the market under the name of Selektope.
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