Antifouling polyurethanes

F. ARROSIO; A. B. OROFINO; P. FAYÓ; M. E. PENOFF

Congreso; XI Simposio Argentino de Polímeros; 2015

. The fouling is a technologic problem associated with the adhesion or deposition of a variety of materials and substances on solid surfaces. This phenomenon includes the marine biofouling, i.e. the settlement and growth of marine plants and animals on submerged structures, like ships? hulls, piers, piling and oil rigs, etc. Also, when interfaced with the biological environment, biomedical devices are prone to surface biofouling due to adhesion of microbial or thrombotic agents as a result of the foreign body response. One of the major unsolved complex systems confronting the petroleum and natural gas industries in the production, transportation and processing of petroleum and other heavy-organic-containing hydrocarbons, is the untimely deposition of heavy organic compounds by flocculation and deposition of asphaltene, resin, paraffin / wax, etc., in the reservoir rock tubulars, oil well, pumps, storage vessels, transfer pipelines, and refinery. In all these cases the fouling problem entails important economic consequences. Paints and coatings are one alternative to achieve an antifouling surface. Among the materials used to produce protective coatings, polyurethanes are one of the most popular, together with epoxies.In this work, a polyurethane was synthesized, with a long chain fluorinated compound as a chemical modifier to induce low surface energy / antifouling properties. Both neat and fluoromodified polyurethane spincoated surfaces were characterized in terms of their hydro and oleophobicity by means of the sessile drop ? contact angle experiment. Atomic force, optical and scanning electron microscopies were used to characterize the coatings morphology. Finally, the effects of immersion and water flow, both pure and with paraffin content were analyzed. A jet impingement apparatus was designed to subject the sample to a water flow. Paraffin was taken from the actual fouling of pipelines from Argentinean oil wells. The coated surfaces were then analyzed in order to determine the paraffin deposition. A comparison was made between the performance of the fluoropolyurethanes with respect to fluoroepoxies and not fluorinated polymers.