|
Research programme
Corrosion protection In the field of corrosion protection our research is focused on the following topics:
Sol-gel coatings In the last two decades sol-gel coatings have been extensively studied for corrosion protection applications. According to the definition, sol-gel is every process which starts from the precursor’s solution and goes through the stage of sol and gel. Sol is a stable suspension of colloidal particles within a liquid, and gel is a rigid and interconnected network. Precursors can be inorganic and organic, nowadays usually hybrid sol-gels are explored which consist of both inorganic and organic precursors. Sol-gel can be applied to metal surface using various techniques, such as dipping, spinning, spraying. Once deposited onto a metal surface, sol-gel coating is subjected to thermal treatment (or curing) for final condensation and densification. Hybrid sol-gel coatings used in corrosion protection act as barrier, i.e. prevent the penetration of electrolyte to underlying substrate. In real applications, barrier protection is often not sufficient to resist corrosion attack. Once damaged, coating will become permeable to aggressive medium eventually leading to corrosion of substrate. Once corrosion process begins, it cannot be stopped. One of the solutions is to incorporate inhibitors, for example cerium salts, into sol-gel matrix which would then contribute the active recovery necessary to prolong the protection.
Publications related to sol-gel coatings
|
