Novel Technique Reveals Hidden Corrosion Under Polymer Coatings

Novel Technique Reveals Hidden Corrosion Under Polymer Coatings Electrochemical technique polymer coatings

Protective coatings on metals—like the paint on your car or the polymer wraps safeguarding pipelines—are essential for preventing corrosion. Yet, even minor defects in these coatings can silently trigger degradation underneath, a phenomenon notoriously difficult to detect and measure. Thanks to a groundbreaking study led by Vijayshankar Dandapani at IIT Bombay, researchers have now unveiled a powerful new method to accurately monitor this hidden process.

The Hidden Threat: Cathodic Disbondment

Small scratches in a polymer coating can expose the underlying metal to oxygen and moisture, accelerating corrosion through a mechanism known as cathodic disbondment. Until now, traditional techniques struggled to measure corrosion rates beneath intact coatings because these methods depended on ionic currents, blocked by the very coatings they sought to evaluate.

A Revolutionary Approach: Hydrogen Permeation-Based Potentiometry (HPP)

The new method sidesteps previous obstacles by using hydrogen atoms to polarize the metal surface from behind, without needing direct ionic conduction through the polymer. By introducing hydrogen through a special palladium (Pd) membrane, researchers could control and quantify how much hydrogen reached the coated side, enabling precise measurement of oxygen reduction reactions (ORR)—the chemical culprit behind coating degradation.

Complementing this, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) was employed to cross-validate results, ensuring that the decrease in electrochemical potential matched reductions in coating pore resistance and charge transfer resistance, hallmarks of true corrosion progression.

Implications Across Industries

This hybrid HPP-EIS technique opens new avenues for assessing polymer coating durability, especially critical for pipelines transporting hydrogen blends, automotive materials, aerospace structures, and even emerging technologies like fuel cells and biosensors. With corrosion costing the global economy trillions annually, improved diagnostics like this could have massive impacts across industries.

For an in-depth dive into this fascinating study, read the full article here: Novel electrochemical technique measures degradation rate of polymer coatings on iron.

About the Researcher

Dr. Vijayshankar Dandapani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, specializing in electrochemistry and corrosion phenomena.

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