Short term protection of bronzes

Corrosion of bronzes would be highly accelerated after being excavated due to drastic changes of environmental conditions. The short-term protective methods are required to prevent the corrosion before their long-term storage in inert environments, e.g., short-term exposure in air during transportation. In a new work, a net-like menthol coating strategy is realised by a specific spraying method.

Excellent protective effect

Test results show that the protective efficiency of menthol coating increases as its thickness increases. 500 μm menthol coating can effectively protect bronzes from water and Cl⁻ up to 120 days. Furthermore, the menthol coating will sublimate completely without any residual. This excellent protective effect lies in the labyrinth effect of the dense structure with disorderly distributed columnar and needle-like menthol.

The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 170, September 2022.