Bionic transparent antifouling coatings with linalool inspired by salvia: Investigating the inhibition mechanism on typical fouling organism

In the marine industry and freshwater aquariums, biofouling leads to adverse effects including increased energy consumption, reduced service life, and blurred windows that require resources and intensive labor to fix. Linalool is a representative monoterpene alcohol extracted from salvia with multiple bioactive properties and can hence be applied as an antifouling agent. In this study, a series of transparent antifouling coatings were prepared using linalool inspired by salvia, and experiments were performed to evaluate their antifouling performances and antifouling mechanism. The prepared coatings demonstrated a high level of transparency, making them suitable for application to windows. The antifouling ability offered by linalool and low surface energy (12.5 mJ·m⁻²) provided by fluorosilane conferred the antifouling performance of 96.7 % against Pseudoalteromonas xiamenensis and 97.3 % against Halamphora sp. More importantly, inhibition of the expression of mussel foot proteins by linalool reduced the adhesive strength of mussel adhesive plaques, which subsequently assigned resistance to mussel adhesion. The environmental impact of antifouling coatings prepared with linalool as the active ingredient was verified by experiments involving zebrafish survival and diatom growth, the coatings had no effect on the growth of organisms in the environment, proving their environmental friendliness. The convenient preparation, excellent antifouling activity, and optical transparency of these coatings demonstrate the potential applicability of monoterpene alcohols, represented by linalool, as an antifouling agent; additionally, it can be used in sensors for data extraction, underwater detection portals and other fields that need transparency.