Scientists of the National Research Technological University (NITU) “MISIS” proposed a new way to protect steel surfaces from an aggressive medium, such as salt water. This will increase the service life of the maritime infrastructure, as well as avoid equipment breakdowns. This is reported in a press release on the RHF website.
Typically important details of devices are made from corrosion-resistant materials, for example, steels containing chrome, nickel and molybdenum. In contact with water, a protective film is formed with a thickness of several nanometers, but it is destroyed by friction. To avoid this, scientists have created a coating that can protect the film: it not only provides a strong clutch with the part, but also has high strength.
The coating consists of tantal-zirconium carbides included in the metal layer. If there are no friction, then carbides do not affect corrosion protection, otherwise they protect the film from wear. Such a coating can be used to increase the durability of pumps for pumping water by protecting the turbine shaft from corrosion. For the application of the protective coating, the method of electric spacing doping is used, when the carbides are embedded in steel.
In the future, researchers plan to make the water-repellent properties and prevent the contact of steel surfaces with the aggressive medium. It can solve the problem of fascination with marine ice equipment in northern latitudes.