SBIR Phase I: Superhydrophobic Zinc Coatings for Anti-Corrosion Applications

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发一种超疏水锌涂层，预计将表现出比现有锌涂层更高的防腐蚀性能。现有的锌涂层很容易变湿，因此，它们的防腐蚀性能显着降低。因此，这些涂层通常用额外的六价铬层处理以提高其抗腐蚀性能。然而，六价铬是一种人类致癌物，环境法规已将其作为消除的目标。该材料的现有替代品性能较低，成本较高，因此尚未被行业完全接受。在这项工作中开发的超疏水涂层可以防止水润湿表面。因此，预期该涂层表现出更高的耐腐蚀性，而不需要额外的六价铬涂层。因此，这种新涂层代表了用六价铬处理的锌涂层的生态友好型替代品，并且可能比现有替代品具有更高的防腐蚀性能。拟议的开发可以在美国锌涂层的3.7亿美元目标市场中采用。该项目的智力价值包括基于公司创始人发明的技术开发超疏水锌涂层。大多数现有的超疏水涂层由非金属材料制成，例如聚合物或陶瓷，因此对于所提出的应用是不可行的。当需要金属涂层时，超疏水锌涂层为腐蚀问题提供了变革性的解决方案。拟议的第一阶段研究的主要目标是开发一种超疏水锌涂层，从而消除了对六价铬酸盐处理的需要。这种发展预计将提供相当于或上级的铬酸盐处理的锌涂层所提供的腐蚀保护。超疏水涂层的防腐蚀性能将使用盐雾试验和电化学技术进行评估。此外，将使用标准磨损测试来研究超疏水锌涂层的耐久性。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to develop a superhydrophobic zinc coating that is expected to exhibit higher anti-corrosion performance than existing zinc coatings. Existing zinc coatings easily get wet and, consequently, their anti-corrosion performance is significantly reduced. As a result, these coatings are often treated with an additional layer of hexavalent chromate to improve their anti-corrosion performance. However, hexavalent chromium is a human carcinogen, which has been targeted for elimination by environmental regulations. Existing substitutes to this material provide lower performance at a higher cost and thus are not fully accepted in the industry. The superhydrophobic coating to be developed in this effort prevents water from wetting the surface. Therefore, this coating is expected to exhibit higher corrosion resistance without the need for the additional hexavalent chromate coating. This new coating, therefore, represents an eco-friendly replacement for the zinc coating treated with hexavalent chromate, and potentially exhibits higher anti-corrosion performance than existing alternatives. The proposed development can be adopted in the $370 million target market of US zinc coatings. The intellectual merit of this project includes developing superhydrophobic zinc coatings based on the technology invented by the company founders. Most existing superhydrophobic coatings are made of non-metallic materials such as polymers or ceramics, and therefore are not feasible for the proposed application. The superhydrophobic zinc coating provides a transformative solution for the corrosion problem when a metallic coating is required. The main objective of the proposed Phase I research is developing a superhydrophobic zinc coating, which eliminates the need for the hexavalent chromate treatment. This development is expected to provide corrosion protection equivalent, or superior, to that provided by the chromate-treated zinc coatings. The anti-corrosion properties of the superhydrophobic coating will be evaluated using salt spray tests and electrochemical techniques. In addition, durability of the superhydrophobic zinc coating will be investigated using the standard abrasion test.