Greenly synthesized zeolites as sustainable materials for corrosion protection: Design, technology and application

The progress and use of effective and economic anticorrosive resources are in high mandate due to huge safety and economic concerns about corrosion. Significant advancements have already been achieved that help in minimizing corrosion costs up to US $375 to US $875 billion annually. The use of zeolites in anticorrosive and self-healing coatings is well-studied and documented in many reports. The self-healing property of zeolite-based coatings is attributed to their ability to provide anticorrosive protection in the defected areas through forming protective oxide films i.e. passivation. The synthesis of zeolites from the traditional hydrothermal method is associated with several drawbacks including their high cost and discharge of harmful gases such as oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) and greenhouse gases (CO₂ and CO). In view of this, some green approaches such as solvent-free, organotemplate-free, use of safer organic templates, green solvents (e.g. ILs) and energy efficient (MW and US) heating, one-step reactions (OSRs) etc. are adopted in the green synthesis of zeolites. Recently, the self-healing properties of greenly synthesized zeolites are documented along with their mechanism of corrosion inhibition.