A novel UV-curable amphiphobic coating with dynamic air-layer copolymer brush offering stable dual-functional anti-scaling and anti-corrosion properties

Abstract

Scale deposition and metal corrosion, especially in the petroleum industry, have always been serious issues that seriously affect economic efficiency and safety. However, conventional anti-scaling strategies including mechanical descaling and chemical detergents are energy-consuming and environmentally damaging, which can't achieve efficient and long-term protection. Based on mechanical descaling and chemical detergents, and anti-corrosion strategies based on filler are inadequate to realize efficient protection. Herein, this work reports a novel UV-curable polymer coating with long-term anti-scaling and anti-corrosion properties. The excellent anti-scaling capability was achieved by inhibiting interfacial nucleation and reducing interfacial adhesion work of scaling products. Significantly, the anti-scaling capability of the designed coating mainly originates from two aspects: inhibiting interfacial nucleation and reducing interfacial adhesion work of scaling. Compared with pure polyurethane acrylic coating (0 % FGSS), the 20 % FGSS coating shows significantly improved scaling repellence even after a 240 h dynamic scaling test while maintaining a fairly low theoretical adhesion work (≈0.1 mN/m). This outstanding anti-corrosion capability of the FGSS coating mainly originates from two aspects: the physical barrier effect of the air layer and low surface energy resistance barriers with dynamic FGSS brushes. The physical barrier effect of the air layer and the low surface energy resistance barriers also lead to outstanding anti-corrosion property (with the |Z|0.01 Hz value maintained at 108 Ω·cm2). This study presents a simple and effective design and fabricated strategy, paving a new pathway for developing UV-cured coatings with unique anti-corrosion and anti-scaling properties. This facile and effective UV-curable polymer coating shows great potential in metal protection and paves a new pathway for the development of long-term functional protection coatings.