Abstract

The authors present a general overview of marine paints, paying particular attention to the case of antifouling paints. After locating these paints in the anticorrosive protection systems used on the underwater parts of ships and/or other moving structures, a summary is made of the main types of antifouling products used through history up to the present time. This is complemented by a systematic assessment of the main types of living organisms that fix themselves to the underwater parts of ships. Consideration is also briefly made of the main basic mechanisms by which the different types of antifouling paints work. Finally a number of current research lines on antifouling technologies are mentioned.