This study demonstrates that it is possible to create re-chargeable coatings for metal ions used as antifouling agents. This platform technology will be used to create anti-microbial coatings that use metals as a deterrent for biological growth. Our experience with other natural peptides that are not toxic to the environment suggests these metal-binding peptides can be used as "drop in" additives for a coating to imbue it with these functionalities. Peptides can be chosen to interact with and bind to specific metals, to change these metals at will, and to use combinations of metals or peptides with increasingly larger binding coefficients, making the system programmable. When a specific metal binding peptide is chosen, an assessment of the polymer system can be performed to optimize the performance of the peptide. Since metals are so abundantly found in seawater, they can be utilized by marine coatings to prevent biological growth from occurring without adding metal ions to the environment. These approaches should reduce the regulatory concerns of using heavy metals as antifouling actives. This work represents an ongoing effort by our teams (Reactive Surfaces and University of Southern Mississippi) to develop systems using natural additives where enzymes and reactants are dispersed, embedded, and maintained in an active state within a continuous polymer phase, either as solid films or aqueous dispersions. There are many advantages to using this resource to design novel functionalities. Not the least of these advantages is, as demonstrated here, the combination of the use of polymer chemistries with known, easily accessible and renewable functionalities. In the case of recharge-able coatings based upon metal-binding peptides that are extracted from nature, the numbers, types, ease of genetic manipulation, and essential "drop in" characteristics of these additives provides the formulator with palette of functionalizing possibilities. In the near term, our teams will investigate the breadth of suitable resin systems, the range of microbial targets, and the ranges of metal-binding proteins that will create the most efficient rechargeable coatings in the widest variety of applications and commercial products.