Integrated antifouling and anticorrosion strategies for marine coatings: State of the art, challenges, and future perspectives.

Abstract

The long-term protection of marine engineering equipment is of critical importance. Protective coatings serve as the primary means of defense. Conventional three-layer systems comprising a primer, tie coat, and topcoat suffer from complicated application processes and low efficiency. Moreover, the modulus mismatch between adjacent layers readily induces stress concentration under marine conditions, leading to blistering, delamination, and even detachment, which severely compromises their long-term protective performance. In response, integrated antifouling and anticorrosion coatings (IAAC) have emerged as a key strategy to address these challenges. However, the antifouling and anticorrosion functions exhibit inherent conflicts in terms of surface chemical characteristics, molecular chain mobility, and interfacial stability. This review provides a systematic overview of recent advances in IAAC, with a focus on six representative design strategies: zwitterionic coatings, slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), superhydrophobic coatings, bioinspired coatings, smart responsive coatings, and nanocomposite coatings. By analyzing the fabrication methods of these strategies and the structure-property relationships that underpin their performance, this review further outlines future directions for the development of IAAC, aiming to offer new insights for the design of advanced protective materials for marine engineering applications.