THE POTENTIAL OF ALKYL AMINES AS ANTIFOULING BIOCIDES .1. TOXICITY AND STRUCTURE-ACTIVITY-RELATIONSHIPS

The in vivo toxicity of long chain primary, secondary and tertiary ami nes to the algae Amphora coffeaeformis and Dunaliella parva, and to th e nauplii larvae of Artemia salina was established. Structure-activity relationships indicated that toxicity of primary, secondary and dimet hyl tertiary amines increased with increasing chain length up to a reg ion of maximum activity with Dunaliella and Artemia. However, all of t he amines exhibited similar toxicity to Amphora. With all organisms th ere was an approximate relationship between the number of carbon atoms in the alkyl chain and toxicity, but small differences between each c lass of amine existed and were especially pronounced at the shorter ch ain lengths. Tertiary amines with carbon chains of equal lengths were generally less toxic than amines from other classes, toxicity tending to decrease with increasing chain length. Possible reasons for some of the relationships are discussed.