Biocide-based coatings have been applied for several years to tackle marine biofouling. Recently, engineered nanomaterials, such as silica mesoporous nanocapsules (SiNCs), were used to encapsulate DCOIT, an anti-fouling booster biocide, and Ag, a broad-spectrum bactericidal agent, in order to control their release with time. This study aims to assess the environmental hazard of three novel anti-fouling nanomaterials (SiNC–DCOIT, SiNC–Ag and SiNC–DCOIT–Ag) and their free counterparts (DCOIT, Ag and SiNCs) to marine ecosystems. In order to accomplish this goal, marine toxicity data (L/E/IC₅₀ or NOEC) were compiled to derive PNEC values for each compound based on statistical and deterministic approaches. The first approach relies on the hazardous concentration for 5% of the species (HC₅ using species sensitivity distribution curves) and the second relies on the lowest L/E/IC₅₀ or NOEC value, considering the appropriate assessment factors. In both approaches, PNEC values were lower for the encapsulated biocides than for their free forms. Thus, biocide encapsulation appears to be a promising solution to develop a new generation of efficient anti-fouling additives for maritime coatings with lower environmental hazard than the current state-of-the-art biocides.

中文翻译：

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新型防污纳米材料以及DCOIT和银杀生物剂对海洋生物的危害

基于杀生物剂的涂料已经应用了数年，以解决海洋生物污染问题。最近，工程化的纳米材料（例如二氧化硅介孔纳米胶囊（SiNCs））被用于封装DCOIT（一种防污助剂）和Ag（一种广谱杀菌剂），以便控制其随时间的释放。这项研究旨在评估三种新型防污纳米材料（SiNC-DCOIT，SiNC-Ag和SiNC-DCOIT-Ag）及其游离对立物（DCOIT，Ag和SiNCs）对海洋生态系统的环境危害。为了实现这一目标，汇编了海洋毒性数据（L / E / IC ₅₀或NOEC），以基于统计和确定性方法得出每种化合物的PNEC值。第一种方法依赖于5％的物种（HC ₅（使用物种敏感度分布曲线），第二个依赖于最低的L / E / IC ₅₀或NOEC值，并考虑了适当的评估因素。在两种方法中，包封的杀生物剂的PNEC值均低于其游离形式。因此，杀菌剂的封装似乎是开发新一代有效的防污添加剂的有前途的解决方案，该添加剂对海洋涂料的环境危害要低于当前的最新杀菌剂。