Selfsmoothing is a reduction in hull roughness, selfpolishing is a reduction in film thickness. The very successful TBT-containing selfpolishing antifoulings used hydrolysis as their mechanism. These antifoulings have been enormously successful, providing fouling-free service for up to 60 months and a constant, controllable and predictable selfsmoothing and selfpolishing of the hull right through the designed lifetime of the paint system.

Most coating manufacturers (with the exception of Jotun and its partners in SeaStar Alliance) have been unable to develop a predictable TBT-free selfpolishing antifouling using hydrolysis and have taken the less effective route by adopting hydration as their mechanism, with less than satisfactory results. TBT-free selfpolishing-only antifoulings cannot match the selfsmoothing performance of SeaQuantum.