Developing High-Throughput Assays for Screening and Studying Chemical Interactions of Novel Corrosion Inhibitors in Solution and Coatings

Abstract

In recent years, we have been developing a holistic approach towards the design and screening of novel corrosion inhibitors for solution and coating applications. One of the main challenges in identifying and designing new inhibitors is being able to evaluate different materials under similar conditions to determine their potential efficiency to prevent corrosion. This is further complicated by the need to replicate the environmental conditions where the corrosion inhibitors will be used, understanding the complex chemical interactions in the bulk electrolyte, at the metal interface and in polymer coatings, the large number of different evaluation tests that need to be undertaken and the large amounts of chemicals, metal substrates, instrument techniques, and labour cost that are required to develop commercially viable corrosion inhibitors. To minimise some of these challenges so that we can identify superior corrosion inhibitors worthy of further detailed investigation and development, we are developing computational methods to model inhibitor materials, high-throughput (HTP) corrosion optical solution assay, HTP electrochemistry assay, thin film characterisation methods, neutral salt spray, and novel coating assay protocols. In an effort to accelerate these time consuming processes, we have started to integrate some of these assays into our FASTER™ robotic system. This presentation will highlight some of these challenges and how we have developed some robust HTP assays to expedite our corrosion inhibitor materials development program for solution and coating systems.