Hydrophobicity — A Green Technique for Enhancing Corrosion Resistance of Alloys

Abstract

The corrosion phenomenon is as old as the age of the planet. The cost of corrosion has risen alarmingly with industrial progress and it is estimated to be around 300 billion dollars or 3 to 4.5% of the GNP of developed nations. Thousands of alloys have been developed to control corrosion, which is a major consideration in the development of new ferrous and non-ferrous alloys. Several corrosion control techniques such as inhibitor treatment, coatings, cathodic protection, alloying additions, and designing for corrosion protection have been developed to combat corrosion. Despite their merits, techniques such as inhibition treatment and coatings are limited by their adverse effect on the environment because of their volatile organic components. Due to an increasingly alarming carbon footprint, there is a growing global concern to keep the environment clean. Hence, a great need exists to replace the current control methods by ecofriendly methods. The potential of the green technology of hydrophobicity has therefore been exploited to control corrosion by fabricating hydrophobic surfaces on alloys and these surfaces have shown highly promising results. This technology offers a novel method to control corrosion of metals, alloys, polymers and composites.

Nanosecond Laser Fabrication of Hydrophobic Stainless Steel Surfaces: The Impact on Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance

“…One form of corrosion protection that has been recently gaining significant interest among the research community is the application of hydrophobic properties on materials. Combining corrosion protection with other benefits of hydrophobicity such as anti-icing [ 8 ], control of bio-fouling [ 2 ], self-cleaning [ 2 ], water repellency [ 9 ], and reduction of turbulent flow resistance [ 10 ], makes this property extremely beneficial for applications in harsh or highly humid environments, such as pipelines, wellhead platforms or power transmission lines.…”

“…However, superhydrophobicity cannot be obtained only by minimizing the surface energy. It also requires tailoring the surface roughness [ 10 ]. As an example, Nishino et al [ 13 ] reported the lowest surface free energy of any solid to be 6.7 mJ/m 2 obtained by covering the surface of a glass with regular aligned closest hexagonal packed –CF 3 groups, but the best-achieved contact angle was reported to be only 119°, which is far from superhydrophobicity [ 13 ].…”

“…As an example, Nishino et al [ 13 ] reported the lowest surface free energy of any solid to be 6.7 mJ/m 2 obtained by covering the surface of a glass with regular aligned closest hexagonal packed –CF 3 groups, but the best-achieved contact angle was reported to be only 119°, which is far from superhydrophobicity [ 13 ]. Therefore, hierarchical surface features are crucial requirements to achieve superhydrophobicity [ 10 ]. These hierarchical surfaces are composed of micro hills and valleys similar to the surface of a lotus leaf or insect bodies [ 10 , 11 ].…”

An innovative process for dispersion of graphene nanoparticles and nickel spheres in A356 alloy using pressure infiltration technique

“…One way to achieve this is by increasing the contact angle between water and the solid surface. Until now, the focus for corrosion and drag‐reduction efforts has been on the development of techniques including application of hydrophobic coatings, addition of polymers to the fluid, addition of bubbles or air layers, and the utilization of compliant walls and riblets, and creation of surface roughness via laser patterning, CVD, lithography, ion beam patterning, and spraying . All these techniques cannot be applied readily to large complex‐shaped components used in the industry.…”

Superhydrophobic Film on Hot-Dip Galvanized Steel with Corrosion Resistance and Self-Cleaning Properties

“…Nowadays, with the advances of non-wetting bio-inspired materials the technology of corrosion resistant for metals has been broadened [9][10][11][12][13]. Super-hydrophobic surfaces (water contact angle larger than 150 • and contact angle hysteresis less than 10 • ), which exhibit excellent self-cleaning, water repulsion, anti-icing, and corrosion resistance characteristics, have drawn much attention both Tianjin Fengchuan Chemical Reagent Technologies Co., Ltd., Tianjin, China.…”