Antifouling Epoxy Coatings with Scots Pine Bark Extracts

Antifouling coatings have to provide antibacterial performance combined with good mechanical and chemical properties. The good anticorrosive performance of tannins on steel surfaces and antibacterial activity of phytochemicals from conifers could provide a solution in the form of Scots pine bark extract. In this study, epoxy compositions with different ratios of the characterised extract (TPC, HPLC analysis of phytochemicals) were tested physically (density), mechanically (Shore D hardness, three-point bending test, Charpy impact test), chemically (DSC curing analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, chemical resistance), and microbiologically (antibacterial activity). The results were analysed and the performance of the composites was evaluated.