Amphiphobic ceramic coatings on carbon steel overhead tubing

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Modern industrial fluid processing vessels and fluid transportation conduits at both the small- and large-scale require durable coatings with well-defined wetting properties at nearly every stage. The same is true of the Alberta energy industry where amphiphobic coatings can be used to mitigate fouling and corrosion. Currently available superhydrophobic coatings suffer from too many crippling inadequacies to merit serious consideration for tackling a large number of industry technical problems. As the premier supplier of process chemistries and water treatment solutions to the Alberta energy industry, NalcoChampion Canada (henceforth called NCC in this grant application) recognizes the need for durable, liquid repellent surfaces. A specific problem of immediate relevance faced by NCC and its clients, relates to the fast corrosion of overhead piping in crude oil distillation. Titania nanotube-based superhydrophobic coatings developed by the Shankar Group at the UofA, offer a potential solution to this problem due to their resilient wetting behavior, corrosion resistance and impressive mechanical properties. The TiO2 nanotubes in such omniphobic coatings are grown on native Ti substrates by the electrochemical anodization process. However the formation of titania nanotubes on non-native, industrially relevant substrates such as carbon steel, presently involves one titanium vacuum deposition step before anodization that is mass producible or scalable. We propose to solve this problem by examining methods of forming TiO2 nanotubes on carbon steel and other industrial substrates, without the use of vacuum deposition.