Enhanced performances of polymer composite coating for rusted metallic substrates

Researchers report enhanced adhesive and anti-corrosive performances of polymer composite coating for rusted metallic substrates by capillary filling.

A ship and a conveyor platform.
According to the researchers Image source:  raggio5 - Pixabay (symbol image).

At present, mechanical de-rust technologies (grinding and sandblasting) are forbidden in some specific engineering fields such as oil drilling platforms equipped with storage tanks, chemical pipelines and power transmission system. It is passivated rust with cracks and holes that is known to hinder adhesion between anticorrosive coating and metallic substrate. This paper reported an organic-organic fluoropolymer/polyurethane (PF/PU) polymer coating, showing strong adhesion strength of 18.2 MPa with rust and 16.5 MPa after 240 h salt spray test, which is 2–3 times higher than conventional inorganic-organic epoxy (EP) coating (6–9 MPa).

Improved reliability

The PF/PU coating have protected rusted chemical pipelines from marine atmosphere corrosion for 3 years. Due to the micro/nano-channels in the rust layer, PF/PU precursor of appropriate surface tension and viscosity spontaneously adsorb/adhesive, wet, spread and fill with the channel by capillary force. Based on researches and practical engineering applications on chemical pipelines and subway/railway tracks, a new polymer coating technology with rust towards on-site maintenance has been developed, aiming to realise the surface function remanufacturing of high-tech equipment served in severe corrosive medium and improve reliability of the equipment.

The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 178, May 2023.

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