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- 2012-7-19
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110.copper coating
P1 - Britain used copper as secret weapon to win the naval supermacy against France.
By covering the underwater parts of their ships' hulls with copper plates, which slowly dissolved and released toxic copper icons, the British admirals stopped branacles and etc from taking up residence. => British ships gained more speed, manoeuvrability and staying power.
P2 - Now the problem of ship-fouling remains and the solution is copper-containing paint.
An alternative chemical is tri-butyl tin. But it is now illegal. So the search continues.
P3 - One possibility is to use avermectins which prevent barnacle by stunting its growth. Only a tiny amount is needed and other marine species are not affected.
Another way is to confuse barnacles. A formula uses polymer molecules that are water-attracting on one side and water-repellent on the other. When they are painted onto the surface the arrangement forces them into a kind of chequerboard pattern which makes it hard for barnacles to stick.
P4 - AN has an alternative: use a fluoropolymer to create a surface too smooth for barnacles to hold onto it.
Once the vessel is moving faster than 10 knots, the water sweeps the animals away.
But for pleasure boats which spend a lot of time idel, the formula need to be improved.
P5 - Small boats are experimenting with a mixture containing a molecule similar to capsaicin and another similar to THC.
P6 - Recently the inland waters of NA have been overrun by zebra and quagga mussels. The mixture developed by Dr S and Dr M seems effective.
P7 - The aim is to also stop boat owners spreading the mussels further.
1/ mussels can survive out of the water for several days so transporting the boat won't kill them;
2/ boat owners are not diligent about inspecting the vessels for signs of infestation
3/ the mussels are hard to see especially when they are young and small
P8 - Whoever comes up with the winning formula to stop the spread of invasive mussels is likely to become rich.
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