Infrastructure in the developed world is required to last for decades, if not longer.  Unfortunately, there is no detailed understanding of how to design,<i> a priori</i>, a polymer film that will provide similarly long-lasting protection for that infrastructure against corrosion.  We try many candidates and some cope tolerably.  We do not understand how much water and salt has to penetrate a barrier coating before corrosion starts, how an organic polymer might control the passage of aggressive chemicals or whether the polymer influences the behavior of water and ions at its interface with the metal and thus the corrosion.  Building on limited understanding, some ideas are offered for further research that might provide better linkage between coating composition and performance.  In fact, there seem to be clues in studies of the nervous system, batteries and membranes.  Otherwise, the focus on corrosion raises questions about percolation, homogeneity of crosslinking, swelling of network polymers, fatigue, adhesion and whether thermosets are more useful than thermoplastics.

Defects in understanding how polymers might form better barriers against corrosion

254th National Meeting (2017)

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