In-situ Growth of Inhibitors on Oil Fly Ash as a Multifunctional (UV Shield/Radical Scavanger/Marine Aerosol/Anticorrosive) Polyurethane Coating

To avoid corrosion of metal and their structure, organic coatings are widely used. The local weather is very important in determining the suitability of the coatings and UV radiation, temperature, humidity and salinity all significantly affect coating efficacy. The major regions of Saudi Arabia, especially the coastal cities, are subject to harsh environmental conditions and the metal-based structures in these regions corrode in a shorter time span than expected. These issues are especially severe in the oil, gas and petroleum industries and in desalination plants, as the presence of chemicals and salty surroundings can accelerate corrosion processes. Thus key industries in Saudi Arabia would significantly benefit from coatings that would withstand these harsh conditions. For the technology to be commercially viable on an industrial scale, and therefore to fulfill their environmental and economic potential, it is important that these coatings be inexpensive and easy to prepare, ideally with low-cost, locally-sourced materials. Different epoxy and polyurethane based coatings are dominating nowadays to mitigate the corrosion. The mechanism of this coating is mainly barrier of electrolyte onto surface. However, the traditional coatings are not UV protected and corrosion occurs due to easy degradation of coatings on metal surface within few months. Besides the presence of marine aerosol at marine atmosphere make the commercial coating more challenge at coastal areas. Thus, this has been asked to develop organic coatings which posses anti-corrosion and UV shield as well as good resistivity of marine aerosol. Such development will lead to environmental, technical and economic benefits to the Kingdom. The objective of the proposed study is to fulfill this need by developing resistant and inexpensive coatings that have the potential to be produced on a large scale. This will be achieved by developing organic coatings using abundant, inexpensive local industrial waste material as additives in order to modulate and enhance the physical and chemical resistance of coatings, which ultimately improve corrosion resistance. Polyurethane (PU) coating is a good choice in this regard. Using proper monomer in PU coating enhance the coating performance. In proposed study multifunctional PU coating will be synthesized to mitigate the UV degradation and corrosion. Locally sourced oil fly ash (OFA) and functionalized OFA by different inhibitors will be used as an additive as well as additional source of protectors for corrosion, UV degradation and marine aerosols. The coatings will be tested in the laboratory to identify their application characteristics and the most promising coatings will then be evaluated further in laboratory- and field-based tests where their performance will be measured under typical harsh environmental conditions. Tangible and measurable outcomes of the proposed research include the following: i. Coatings for metals (mainly mild steel) with optimized properties to withstand the severe environmental conditions of the Kingdom; ii. A set of performance criteria for the developed coatings under said conditions; iii. New facilities for the synthesis and characterization of coatings; iv. Training of graduate and undergraduate students; v. Journal publication(s) and/or patents on the coatings developed. The research team possesses significant research experience in the coating field.