Golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei), originating from South China, is a filter-feeding species of freshwater mussels. It is very easy to invade water transfer tunnels and densely attach on tunnel walls, causing bio-fouling and blockage of pipelines, reducing water transfer efficiency, resulting in structure corrosion and threat of project operation. Experiments were carried out to study the attachment characteristics of the golden mussel on the 17 types of commonly used coating materials: polyurea, silane and epoxy resin etc. It is found that some of the coating materials, such as silane liquid, one-component polyurea (fatty group) and vinyl resin were effective in restraining the attachment of golden mussel in the short-term (7 days) experiment. The average number of byssuses used for attachment and the average attachment strength of the golden mussel were smallest on the coatings: silane liquid, one-component polyurea (fatty group) and vinyl resin. The average number of byssus for attachment and average attachment strength were negatively related to the contact angle on the materials, and positively related to the dispersion force component of surface free energy (Fowkes method), and negatively related to the solid-liquid interfacial energy (ZDY method), and positively related with the solid surface free energy (ZDY method) of the coating materials. Therefore, either increasing the contact angle and the solid-liquid interfacial energy or reducing the dispersion force component of surface free energy and the solid surface free energy of the materials is recommend to improve the efficiency of preventing golden mussel bio-fouling on the materials.