AbstractFouling causes huge material and economic costs in maintenance of mariculture, shipping, naval vessels, and seawater pipelines, etc. Prevention of biofouling is an important property expected of coatings in these fields. In the present work, we prepared nano ZnO/acrylic latex by mechanical mixing as well as by the in situ method. The effect of nanoparticles on the drying of coatings and their antimicrobial nature were investigated.