Anti-Corrosion

A versatile new material helps in the ongoing battle against corrosion. The polymer coating not only protects against corrosion, but highlights cracks as they form, automatically repairs damage to itself, and can be recycled at the end of its life.

As useful as steel is, its main weakness may be its vulnerability to corrosion. Researchers in Korea have now developed a new alloy coating that boosts steel’s resistance to rust, by adding a simple extra step in the surface treatment.

Scientists at Rice University have cooked up a new alloy with a unique and diverse set of attributes that could prove highly effective at protecting steel from corrosion, and can even heal itself when damaged.

Graphene, the highly useful material consisting of a one-atom-thick sheet of linked carbon atoms, has already been shown to keep steel from rusting. Soon, though, it could also be used to stop bacteria from corroding metal pipes.

Aluminum is nice and light, but that comes at the cost of strength. By introducing faults into the metal’s crystalline structure, researchers at Purdue University have now developed new aluminum alloys that are about as strong as stainless steel, and they could make for corrosion-resistant coatings.

Scientists have used graphene to create an anti-rust coating for steel.

Scientists have determined that graphene could be put to use as the world's thinnest anti-corrosion coating.