#biofouling

Water Shield, Not Just a Barrier: How Hydrogels Are Outsmarting Biofouling in Medical Implants

Newswise — When a medical device is implanted, proteins instantly latch onto its surface—a process that triggers inflammation, immune rejection, blood clotting, and bacterial infections. Traditional anti-fouling coatings often degrade, lose effectiveness, or fail in the complex environment of the human body. Hydrogels, with their three-dimensional polymer networks and high water content, offer a natural advantage: they can hold water at their surface, creating a physical barrier that repels proteins before they can stick. Yet not all hydrogels are created equal—some hold water loosely, while others bind it with tenacious strength. Based on these challenges, the research team conducted an in-depth investigation into how different molecular designs influence hydration stability and anti-biofouling performance. A team from Tianjin University, has published (DOI: 10.1007/s10118-026-3585-x) a review in the Chinese Journal of Polymer Science. The article, available online since April 7, 2026, and in print from June 5, 2026, systematically classifies anti-biofouling hydrogels based on their hydration mechanisms and evaluates their biomedical applications—including vitreous substitutes, anti-adhesion barriers, diabetic wound dressings, and device coatings.

Graphene coatings can serve as an eco-friendly alternative to biocides

Tired of hauling your boat out of the water to clean its hull? Graphene can replace the toxic chemicals usually used to do this job. Hull fouling is a problem familiar to most boat owners, and for the maritime industry, marine biofouling represents a significant challenge. Biofouling consists of various living organisms that attach themselves to parts of boats below the waterline. These can include microorganisms, algae and shells. Fouling increases water resistance, fuel consumption and maintenance costs. Many owners commonly haul their boat out of the water once a year to clean the hull. "The traditional way to remove fouling is to use toxic biocides. However, this has a negative impact on the environment, and we should therefore limit their use," said Michael Kelly from the FACET research group at NTNU's Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Fouling

Fouling can be defined as "the settlement, and sometimes the growth, of undesired materials on solid surfaces in a way that reduces the efficiency of the affected part." Though it rarely leads to catastrophic failure of materials, fouling nevertheless impacts a part's function, leading to a failure of its intended purpose. Like corrosion, fouling has considerable economic impact. There are numerous types of fouling, including biofouling (accumulation of living organisms), precipitation fouling (accumulation of crystals precipitating from solution), and particulate fouling (accumulation of particulates), among others.

Though similar, with overlap in their definitions, fouling and corrosion are not necessarily the same thing. (Though corrosion fouling is one type of fouling where the corrosion deposits build up, and fouling corrosion is another thing entirely, where corrosion is caused by fouling.) Corrosion is caused in-situ, as a result of reactions with the material/part. Fouling is caused by build up of ex-situ material, i.e., material that is not a component of the part that is being fouled.

The effect of fouling on heat exchanges is of particular interest to the industries involved, as is membrane fouling.

Degradable silicone-hydrogel coating offers efficient marine biofouling protection

A research team at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a novel degradable silicone-hydrogel coating, delivering impressive synergistic anti-biofouling performance for marine applications. The study was published in Small. Marine engineering equipment and underwater infrastructure face severe challenges from microbial fouling, which leads to performance degradation, increased maintenance costs, and potential safety hazards. Traditional antifouling technologies involve highly toxic biocides, often triggering severe ecological pollution. Current eco-friendly alternatives, such as hydrogels and silicones, still struggle with poor antifouling efficiency and limited durability.

Transparent coating can prevent growth of algae on underwater solar cells

DTU researchers have developed an important coating for underwater drones and solar cell platforms. The coating will not adorn the drones in different colors, but rather act as a self-polishing layer that keeps algae and other biofouling away from the drones' built-in solar cells when they are on missions below sea level. The transparent coating was designed by Professor Søren Kiil from DTU Chemical Engineering, who in collaboration with Assistant Professor Narayanan Rajagopalan, Laboratory Manager Claus Erik Weinell, and a group of students. It allows the sun's energy to pass through, while also preventing algae and other fouling materials from shielding the solar cells.

Biofouling release technology to protect ship hulls

How do you stop marine organisms from colonizing a tanker? Creative answers are needed to solve this problem, such as from the field of chemistry. What does a tanker care if barnacles colonize it? Well, given the gigantic dimensions of such ships, you would think: nothing at all. "However, the colonization of ship surfaces by marine organisms is a huge problem," says Professor Axel Rosenhahn. "It's been calculated that they increase the flow resistance so much that the ship's fuel consumption increases by up to 60%." Not to mention CO2 emissions. This is why the head of the Biointerfaces research group at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, has set out to make life on the ship's hull as uncomfortable as possible.

Peel-off coating keeps desalination cleaner and greener

A removable coating that can be used to clean desalination membranes has been developed by KAUST researchers. The nontoxic coating could provide a safer and more efficient alternative to harmful chemicals used to clean reverse osmosis systems for seawater desalination.

The reverse osmosis desalination process uses pressure to filter seawater through a semipermeable membrane to produce fresh drinking water. While the technique is more energy efficient than other desalination approaches, its performance can be hindered by the growth of bacteria and other microorganisms on the membrane surface.

"This biofilm creates a layer that does not allow water to pass as easily," says Maria Fernanda Nava-Ocampo, a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Johannes Vrouwenvelder. "One of the biggest problems of all the current methods to control biofouling is that they do not completely remove the biofilm from the membrane system, resulting in permanent fouling. This causes elevated energy consumption and disposal of control chemicals into the sea."