Indian researchers have developed superhydrophobic coatings that can improve stainless steel’s corrosion resistance. The coatings can be used in marine applications, power generation, and nuclear sectors. They were developed by an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India.
Key Highlight:
- Indian researchers have developed superhydrophobic coatings that can improve stainless steel’s corrosion resistance.
- The coatings can be used in marine applications, power generation, and nuclear sectors.
- They were developed by an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India.
- The developed coatings were found to be abrasion-resistant after 100 cycles of testing.
Superhydrophobic coatings developed by Indian researchers can improve stainless steel’s corrosion resistance, making it suitable for marine applications, pipelines, power generation, and nuclear applications.
Because of their high industrial relevance, superhydrophobic or ultralow wetting surfaces with self-cleaning properties have been the focus of intense research over the last few decades. When a drop of waterfalls on a solid surface, it spreads due to intermolecular interactions between the solid and the liquid. The water contact angle is used to determine a surface’s wettability. Superhydrophobic surfaces (SHP) have a water contact angle greater than 150 degrees and sliding angles less than 5 degrees. Deposition of a polymer or sol-gel formulation containing nanoparticles is the traditional method of producing a superhydrophobic surface. This method allows for physical and chemical surface modifications, resulting in superhydrophobic coatings in a single step. However, such superhydrophobic coatings have a few flaws in terms of durability, mechanical properties, and substrate adhesion.
A team of researchers from the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, investigated the durability of their developed superhydrophobic (SHP) coatings on stainless steel SS 304 to improve its corrosion resistance. Because of its excellent workability and cost-effectiveness, stainless steel 304 is used in various industrial applications, including marine, machinery, electronic parts, piping, power, and nuclear.
Shot blasting, a technique for improving coating adhesion on a substrate surface, was investigated, and nanocomposite superhydrophobic sols for the generation of adherent and durable superhydrophobic surfaces on SS 304 substrates. The water contact angle increased from 84° for the bare substrate to 160° for the SHP coated substrate due to the surface modifications. Abrasion resistance, weather resistance, and corrosion resistance measurements were used to assess coating stability.
The developed coatings were found to be abrasion-resistant after 100 cycles of testing. These coatings also demonstrated superior corrosion resistance, which can aid in the resolution of issues such as surface aging and corrosion that stainless steel 304 faces in harsh and contaminated environments such as marine and gas pipelines.
[…] ARCI Researcher Team have developed a superhydrophobic coating that is corrosion… […]