Anticorrosive coatings: a review

The main objective of this review is to describe some of the important topics related to the use of marine and protective coatings for anticorrosive purposes. In this context, "protective" refers to coatings for containers, offshore constructions, wind turbines, storage tanks, bridges, rail cars, and petrochemical plants while "marine" refers to coatings for ballast tanks, cargo holds and cargo tanks, decks, and engine rooms on ships.

The review aims at providing a thorough picture of state-of-the-art in anticorrosive coatings systems. International and national legislation aiming at reducing the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have caused significant changes in the anticorrosive coating industry. The requirement for new VOC-compliant coating technologies means that coating manufacturers can no longer rely on the extensive track record of their time-served products to convince consumers of their suitability for use.

An important aspect in the development of new VOC-compliant, high-performance anticorrosive coating systems is a thorough knowledge of the components in anticorrosive coatings, their interactions, their advantages and limitations, as well as a detailed knowledge on the failure modes of anticorrosive coatings.

This review, which mainly deals with European experience and practice, includes a description of the different environments an anticorrosive coating system may encounter during service. In addition, examples of test methods and standards for determination of the performance and durability of anticorrosive coatings have been included.

The different types of anticorrosive coatings are presented, and the most widely applied generic types of binders and pigments in anticorrosive coatings are listed and described. Furthermore, the protective mechanisms of barrier, sacrificial, and inhibitive coatings are outlined. In the past decades, several alternatives to organic solvent-borne coatings have reached the commercial market.

This review also presents some of these technologies and discusses some of their advantages and limitations. Finally, some of the mechanisms leading to degradation and failure of organic coating systems are described, and the reported types of adhesion loss are discussed.