Chugoku Marine and Shin Etsu patent antifouling paint.

Patent No. U.S. 7,297,745 B2

Chugoku Marine Patents, Ltd., and Shin Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd. have been awarded a patent for a method of rendering a base material or a shaped item antifouling with an antifouling paint made from a curable composition comprised of an organopolysiloxane having functional groups capable of condensation reaction at both molecular terminals, and a hydrophobic silica thermally treated together with the organopolysiloxane. The method is comprised of heating the hydrophobic silica with at least part of the organopolysiloxane to produce the thermally treated hydrophobic silica, combining additional organopolysiloxane with the thermally treated hydrophobic silica to form the curable composition, preparing an antifouling paint from the curable composition, coating or impregnating a surface of a base material or a shaped item with the antifouling paint, and subsequently curing the coating composition to form an antifouling coating film, wherein the base material or the shaped item are underwater structures, sea water utilizing apparatus, ships, ship shell plates, fishing materials and fishing gear.