The death knell of Prop Speed and Coppercoat - or just hype

[Neeves]

Graphene oxide and cuprous oxide/hydrogel modified epoxy coating for marine antifouling - Journal of Coatings Technology and Research



The link only gives you an abstract to a research paper, published less than 12 months ago (so not much time for commercial development) if you want the details you need to pay. The precis gives enough information and there are graphene products already being used on commercial vessel props (or so it says in a further google search)

The thesis seems to be that a combination of Copper Oxide and Graphene (or for props - just graphene (I think in an epoxy coating) is an answer for AF - but in my cursory search (I was looking for something else ) there was no mention of price.

Jonathan

 

[[70521]]

The thesis seems to be that a combination of Copper Oxide and Graphene (or for props - just graphene (I think in an epoxy coating) is an answer for AF

I went to a talk about nano-technologies last November. A fascinating topic, my learner friend that I was sat beside muttered over coffee, 'Ah, graphene that technology that has been funded by tens of millions and has yet to come up with any practical use'.

I'd be interested to read the full paper, and share it with the learned professor, about how this would work.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

There is a vast amount of research into new techniques for antifouling going on; this is just one paper; I personally know of 4 or 5 other initiatives using a wide variety of techniques. As I've said before, this is a commercially important issue, so there's plenty of research going on. See this search for the work going on in just ONE university in Hong Kong (Google Search). I've had to be cautious about what I've said in the past because I was privy to unpublished work, but this is all stuff that has been published.

But the bottom line is that it's an incredibly difficult problem, because of the taxonomic range of the beasties concerned. What kills one is food for another!

Anything including graphene oxide is not going to be cheap - I don't think there is a good technique for producing it at scale.

 

[Neeves]

If you Google 'Graphene on Ships Propellors' - admittedly only distantly related to our propellors you will find a few hits, like this one

Stolt Tankers to apply graphene-based propeller coatings to 25 ships

Graphene should not kill the fouling - they should be unable to gain adherence (or be washed off when the prop turns) - removing the need for fouling protection

If this is not hype but hard reality coating 25 ship's propellors is a significant move forward. The featured picture in one of the links was of a bright white propellor - I don't know why I was so pre-conditioned - I'd expected it to be black.

Adding Coper Oxide to the mix would make 'copper (oxide) coat' with a non slip characteristic. There again graphite would add non slip characteristics as would Moly Disulphide.

!0 or 20 years ago complete coating of commercial vessel hulls with silicone was all the rage - it has slipped in favour - the only sustained success of that concept seems to be Prop Speed from New Zealand.

At its introduction we all rejected carbon fibres in sails - that cost was soon forgotten.

Jonathan

 

[Malish]

I went to a talk about nano-technologies last November. A fascinating topic, my learner friend that I was sat beside muttered over coffee, 'Ah, graphene that technology that has been funded by tens of millions and has yet to come up with any practical use'.

I'd be interested to read the full paper, and share it with the learned professor, about how this would work.

I've sent you a PM

 

[Bouba]

Personally, I want something that’s easily applied....without much preparation....not expensive.....where it doesn’t need a technician that has been to the company school....where the boat can be splashed soon after...that’s not temperature/humidity critical. And of course extremely efficacious (yes...that really is a word....just not used properly)
It’s not a lot to ask...is it