http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms/special_issues/green_antifouling/ The Guest Editor\'s Foreword Fouling refers to the accumulation and deposition of living organisms (biofouling) and certain non-living material on hard surfaces, most often in an aquatic environment. The International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-fouling Systems on Ships will prohibit the use of harmful organotins in anti-fouling paints used on ships and will establish a mechanism to prevent the potential future use of other harmful substances in anti-fouling systems. We would like to run this special issue to promote the research and development of new anti-fouling agents and methods. Submission All papers should be submitted to ijms@mdpi.com. To be published continuously until the deadline and papers will be listed together at the special issue website. Submitted papers should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors is available on the Instructions for Authors page. The International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed monthly journal published by MDPI. Open Access publication fees are 800 CHF per paper. English correction fees and/or formatting fees (250 CHF) will be added in certain cases (1050 CHF per paper for those papers that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections). Some Leading Papers and Reviews Chambers, L.D.; Stokes, K.R.; Walsh, F.C.; Wood, R.J.K. Modern approaches to marine antifouling coatings. Surf. Coat. Technol. 2006, 201, 3642-3652. Dobretsov, S.; Dahms, H.U.; Qian, P.Y. Inhibition of biofouling by marine microorganisms and their metabolites. Biofouling 2006, 22, 43-54. Clare, A.S. Towards nontoxic antifouling. J. Marine Biotech. 1998, 6, 3-6. Yebra, D.M.; Kiil, S.; Dam-Johansen, K. Antifouling technology - past, present and future steps towards efficient and environmentally friendly antifouling coatings. Prog. Org. Coat. 2004, 50, 75-104. http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/10/11/4623/ Marine biofouling is of major economic concern to all marine industries. The shipping trade is particularly alert to the development of new antifouling (AF) strategies, especially green AF paint as international regulations regarding the environmental impact of the compounds actually incorporated into the formulations are becoming more and more strict. It is also recognised that vessels play an extensive role in invasive species propagation as ballast waters transport potentially threatening larvae. It is then crucial to develop new AF solutions combining advances in marine chemistry and topography, in addition to a knowledge of marine biofoulers, with respect to the marine environment. This review presents the recent research progress made in the field of new non-toxic AF solutions (new microtexturing of surfaces, foul-release coatings, and with a special emphasis on marine natural antifoulants) as well as the perspectives for future research directions. http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/10/11/4623/ Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 CET International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2009-10-27 10 11 Review 4623 4637 1422-0067 Challenges for the Development of New Non-Toxic Antifouling Solutions 2009-10-27 doi: 10.3390/ijms10114623 Jean-Philippe Maréchal Claire Hellio http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/10/2/559/ In marine environments and water systems, it is easy for many structures to form biofilms on their surfaces and to be deteriorated due to the corrosion caused by biofilm formation by bacteria. The authors have investigated the antibacterial effects of metallic elements in practical steels so far to solve food-related problems, using Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. However, from the viewpoint of material deterioration caused by bacteria and their antifouling measures, we should consider the biofilm behavior as aggregate rather than individual bacterium. Therefore, we picked up Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudoalteromonas carageenovara in this study, since they easily form biofilms in estuarine and marine environments. We investigated what kind of metallic elements could inhibit the biofilm formation at first and then discussed how the thin films of those inhibitory elements on steels could affect biofilm formation. The information would lead to the establishment of effective antifouling measures against corrosion in estuarine and marine environments. http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/10/2/559/ Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:00:00 CET International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2009-02-12 10 2 Article 559 571 1422-0067 Evaluation of Various Metallic Coatings on Steel to Mitigate Biofilm Formation 2009-02-12 doi: 10.3390/ijms10020559 Hideyuki Kanematsu Hajime Ikigai Michiko Yoshitake http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/9/10/1989/ Tributyltin (TBT) released into seawater from ship hulls is a stable marine pollutant and obviously remains in marine environments. We isolated a TBT resistant marine Pseudoalteromonas sp. TBT1 from sediment of a ship’s ballast water. The isolate (109.3 ± 0.2 colony-forming units mL-1) adsorbed TBT in proportion to the concentrations of TBTCl externally added up to 3 mM, where the number of TBT adsorbed by a single cell was estimated to be 108.2. The value was reduced to about one-fifth when the lysozyme-treated cells were used. The surface of ethanol treated cells became rough, but the capacity of TBT adsorption was the same as that for native cells. These results indicate that the function of the cell surface, rather than that structure, plays an important role to the adsorption of TBT. The adsorption state of TBT seems to be multi-layer when the number of more than 106.8 TBT molecules is adsorbed by a single cell. http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/9/10/1989/ Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 CEST International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2008-10-24 9 10 Article 1989 2002 1422-0067 Accelerator Analysis of Tributyltin Adsorbed onto the Surface of a Tributyltin Resistant Marine Pseudoalteromonas sp. Cell 2008-10-24 doi: 10.3390/ijms9101989 Haruo Mimura Ryusei Sato Yu Sasaki Yuichi Furuyama Akira Taniike Kazutoshi Yoshida Akira Kitamura http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/9/6/1024/ The paper presents a chemical composition analysis of the gases emanated from geothermal sources in the Herculane Spa area (Romania). The upper homologues of methane have been identified in these gases. An ion-molecule reaction mechanism could be implicated in the formation of the upper homologues of methane. The CH4+ ions that appear under the action of radiation are the starting point of these reactions. The presence of hydrogen in the emanated gases may be also a result of these reactions. http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/9/6/1024/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 CEST International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2008-06-20 9 6 Article 1024 1033 1422-0067 Ion-Molecule Reactions and Chemical Composition of Emanated from Herculane Spa Geothermal Sources 2008-06-20 doi: 10.3390/ijms9061024 Constantin Cosma Ioan Suciu Lorentz Jäntschi Sorana D. Bolboacă http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/9/4/542/ A model experiment monitoring the fate of total residue oxidant (TRO) in water at a constant temperature and salinity indicated that it decayed exponentially with time, and with TRO decaying faster in seawater than in distilled water. The reduction of TRO by temperature (°K) was found to fit a curvilinear relationship in distilled water (r2 = 0.997) and a linear relationship in seawater (r2 = 0.996). Based on the decay rate, flow rate, and the length of cooling water flowing through at a given temperature, the TRO level in the cooling water of a power plant could be estimated using the equation developed in this study. This predictive model would provide a benchmark for power plant operators to adjust the addition of chlorine to levels necessary to control bio-fouling of cooling water intake pipelines, but without irritating ambient marine organisms. http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/9/4/542/ Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:00:00 CEST International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2008-04-04 9 4 Article 542 553 1422-0067 A Model to Predict Total Chlorine Residue in the Cooling Seawater of a Power Plant Using Iodine Colorimetric Method 2008-04-04 doi: 10.3390/ijms9040542 Jih-Terng Wang Ming-Hui Chen Hung-Jen Lee Wen-Been Chang Chung-Chi Chen Su-Cheng Pai Pei-Jie Meng http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/9/3/342/ Techniques in resin blending are simple and efficient method for improving the properties of polymers, and have been used widely in polymer modification field. However, polymer latex blends such as the combination of latexes, especially the latexes with water-soluble polymers, were rarely reported. Here, we report a core-shell composite latex synthesized using methyl methacrylate (MMA), butyl acrylate (BA), 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (EHA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) as monomers and ammonium persulfate and sodium bisulfite redox system as the initiator. Two stages seeded semi-continuous emulsion polymerization were employed for constructing a core-shell structure with P(MMA-co-BA) component as the core and P(EHA-co-GMA) component as the shell. Results of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Dynamics Light Scattering (DLS) tests confirmed that the particles obtained are indeed possessing a desired core-shell structural character. Stable reactive latex blends were prepared by adding the latex with waterborne melamine-formaldehyde resin (MF) or urea-formaldehyde resin (UF). It was found that the glass transition temperature, the mechanical strength and the hygroscopic property of films cast from the latex blends present marked enhancements under higher thermal treatment temperature. It was revealed that the physical properties of chemically reactive latexes with core-shell structure could be altered via the change of crosslinking density both from the addition of crosslinkers and the thermal treatment. http://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/9/3/342/ Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 CET International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2008-03-12 9 3 Article 342 354 1422-0067 Synthesis and Characterization of Core-Shell Acrylate Based Latex and Study of Its Reactive Blends 2008-03-12 doi: 10.3390/ijms9030342 Xiang Liu Xiao-Dong Fan Min-Feng Tang Ying Nie