EVALUATION OF RELEASE RATES AND CONTROL OF BIOFOULING USING MONOLITHIC COATINGS CONTAINING AN ISOTHIAZOLONE

A commercially available isothiazolone, Sea-Nine 211 (c-9211) has been used to study the controlled release characteristics and antifouling behavior of non-ablative coatings based upon a vinyl chloride/vinyl ac etate copolymer resin (VYHH). The governing release mechanism was foun d to be Fickian diffusion when c-9211 is released from a monolithic co ating over the course of 30 d. The extent of fouling was evaluated for a number of marine fouling species found at Taylor's Creek, Beaufort, North Carolina, and Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, in relation to the ra te of release of c-9211 from the coating. The efficacy of c-9211 as a single antifouling agent was determined based on the minimum flux requ ired to keep the coating free of fouling. c-9211 shows promise against a wide variety of fouling species in the marine environment above a A ux of 5-7 mu g . cm(2) . d(-1), with the exception of barnacles and to some extent, diatoms, which do not seem to be well controlled by c-92 11 at fluxes as high as 15 mu g . cm(2) . d(-1).