Searching for “Environmentally-Benign” Antifouling Biocides

As the result of the ecological impacts from the use of tributyltins (TBT) in shipping, environmental legislation for the registration of chemicals for use in the environment has grown to a monumental challenge requiring product dossiers to include information on the environmental fate and behavior of any chemicals. Specifically, persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity, collectively known as PBT, are properties of concern in the assessment of chemicals. However, existing measurements of PBT properties are a cumbersome and expensive process, and thus not applied in the early stages of the product discovery and development. Inexpensive methods for preliminary PBT screening would minimize risks arising with the subsequent registration of products. In this article, we evaluated the PBT properties of compounds reported to possess anti-fouling properties using QSAR (quantitative structure-activity relationship) prediction programs such as BIOWIN™ (a biodegradation probability program), KOWWIN™ (log octanol-water partition coefficient calculation program) and ECOSAR™ (Ecological Structure Activity Relationship Programme). The analyses identified some small (Mr < 400) synthetic and natural products as potential candidates for environmentally benign biocides. We aim to demonstrate that while these methods of estimation have limitations, when applied with discretion, they are powerful tools useful in the early stages of research for compound selection for further development as anti-foulants.