Prevention of marine biofouling on nylon mesh doped with silver iodide

Many textiles have been often used in marine environments for a wide variety of purposes. Consequently, effective and clean methods to prevent biofouling in these textiles are needed. In this study, a nylon mesh doped with AgI was examined for its antifouling performance. The nylon mesh was iodinated with an iodine–potassium iodide aqueous solution and subsequently immersed in silver nitrate solution to form AgI particles in the fiber. SEM-EDX analysis indicated that the AgI crystals were highly incorporated into the nylon 6,6 polymer (173 wt% gain). The bactericidal activity of AgI-doped nylon mesh was more than 200 times higher than that of silver-coated nylon mesh. Furthermore, continuous prevention of biofouling in the coastal marine environment was attained for 437 days by using the AgI-doped nylon mesh. Since the concentration of the released silver ions from the nylon mesh was estimated to be less than 1 ppb, the proposed nylon mesh is useful as an effective and clean method for prevention of biofouling in polymer textiles.