Graphene Oxide Barriers for Corrosion Prevention

The World Corrosion Organization estimates that $2.2 trillion dollars are lost annually to metal and materials corrosion. This incredible high cost is largely ignored except in high-risk applications. The simplest prevention method is to coat the metal surfaces with less reactive materials. Graphene, one atom thin, two-dimensional sheet material, is impermeable to molecular diffusion due to its perfect 2D honeycomb structure. Large-scale applications of nanoscale graphene coatings are impractical due to their high cost and likely defects. Graphene oxide (GO), however, provides a practical, low-cost alternative to graphene due to the water dispersible property, while retaining its permeability properties. Here we show that ultrathin GO films, as thin as 20nm, can effectively inhibit metal corrosion in everyday environments. Because of GO’s low cost and barrier effectiveness at nanoscale thicknesses, it is a viable candidate for large-scale metal corrosion prevention. The detailed results and mechanism of corrosion prevention will be discussed in this work.