A comprehensive review: Super hydrophobic graphene nanocomposite coatings for underwater and wet applications to enhance corrosion resistance

Abstract

The research progress on anti-corrosive coatings has been of the highest importance towards the sustainable formulation of durable material which is raised due to corrosion and its significance of causing serious consequences in structural failures. The anti-corrosive protective coatings play a vital role for enhancing the materials sustainability without changing the bulk properties. Furthermore, an anti-corrosive coating can effectively perform its duty as it possesses characteristics such as toughness and adhesion to withstand impacts, adequate flexibility, intrinsic durability, weathering, or mechanical abuse and finally appearance and cracking when subjected to stress, respectively. However, in a humid environment, the exposure of alloys and metals may possibly create more challenges to either slow down or inhibit the overall corrosion rate. Even though there have been remarkable improvements in technologies associated with corrosion coating, however, there are issues to be solved to increase the durability of protection performance. So, it has become an emerging area of research to develop durable coatings for corrosion protection. Recently, a greater demand is attained by the lotus like materials having super-hydrophobicity which can make an impact for various applications. Various advantages are brought by the nanotechnology development specifically in the fabrication and properties of super-hydrophobic surfaces, resulting in the increasing demand of super-hydrophobic surfaces. In addition, the fundamental properties and potential applications have been revealed by graphene in the past decade mainly due to its remarkable mechanical, optical, thermal, and electrical properties. In the recent years, significant efforts have been devoted to explore its new features, for instance, wetting properties. Furthermore, for anti-wear applications, the properties of super-hydrophobic nature of graphene will be an added advantage. Incorporation of graphene may be a boost for devices which involve anti-corrosion, anti-sticking, self-cleaning and low friction. Therefore, reviewed in this article are the recent developments in graphene based super-hydrophobic surfaces and its related materials. In addition, the strategies of preparation utilizing pure graphene, graphene oxide (GO) and graphene/polymer hybrids along with its potential applications have been discussed. Current challenges, potential solutions, and future opportunities are concisely discussed based on our personal opinions of this dynamic field. In conclusion, it is foreseen that the combined effort of numerous attributes of graphene and super-hydrophobicity will eventually lead to new opportunities for high performance multifunctional devices.