Coatings have long been used to protect critical assets from corrosion. These protective coatings serve to lengthen the service lives of metal assets used in industrial, infrastructure, transportation, machinery, oil and gas, and military applications.1-3 Unfortunately, the use of protective coatings has typically exposed people and the environment to toxic chemicals including solvents, which contribute to increasing levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the environment. While the most toxic chemicals such as hexavalent chromium have gradually been regulated out of most applications, most protective coatings still incorporate solvents that contribute VOCs into the environment.
Alternatives to solventborne coatings exhibit a number of limitations. Thermal, ultraviolet (UV) radiation and infrared (IR) radiation-cured coatings are limited by the size of the assets these coatings can be used to protect, while ambient-cured systems like waterborne coatings have historically exhibited inferior adhesion, mechanical and anti-corrosion properties.4 As such, the fulfillment of increasing demand for more eco-friendly protective coatings for the protection of large assets necessitates the improvement of waterborne coatings. In this article, we describe the use of self-healing technology to design a waterborne coating formulation with anti-corrosion properties eclipsing solventborne versions, thereby eliminating the trade-off between high-performance and low environmental impact.