Superiority of Graphene over Polymer Coatings for Prevention of Microbially Induced Corrosion

• DOI: 10.1038/srep13858
• Publication Date: 2015-09-09T09:14:01Z
• Authors: Ajay Krishnamurthy; Venkataramana Gad...; Rahul Mukherjee; Bharath Natarajan; Osman Eksik; S. Ali Shojaee; Don A. Lucca; Wencai Ren; Hui-Ming Cheng; Nikhil Koratkar
• Keywords: Conformal coating; Inert

Abstract Prevention of microbially induced corrosion (MIC) is great significance in many environmental applications. Here, we report the use an ultra-thin, graphene skin (Gr) as a superior anti-MIC coating over two commercial polymeric coatings, Parylene-C (PA) and Polyurethane (PU). We find that Nickel (Ni) dissolution cell with Gr-coated Ni order magnitude lower than PA PU coated electrodes. Electrochemical analysis reveals Gr offers ~10 ~100 fold improvement MIC resistance coatings respectively. This finding remarkable considering (1–2 nm) ~25 ~4000 times thinner (40–50 (20–80 μm), Conventional polymer are either non-conformal when deposited or degrade under action microbial processes, while electro-chemically inert both resistant to attack extremely conformal defect-free. Finally, provide brief discussion regarding effectiveness as-grown vs. transferred films for While devoid major defects, wet transfer shown introduce large scale defects make it less suitable current application.