Self-Healing Coatings to Mitigate Post-Impact Corrosion

Self-healing polymeric coatings have offered tremendous potential for repairing damage and extending the service life and safety of metallic structures. There have been many challenges associated with the catalyst activated version of the self-healing oligomer filled microcapsule coating additives (or microbeads) technology, but a non-catalyst version appears more promising. The objective of this study was to identify the effect of self-healing coatings in an epoxy coating system containing the non-catalyst microbeads on post-impact corrosion mitigation of water infrastructure. Experimental results showed that coatings containing microbeads did not fully prevent corrosion of the post-impact exposed metal substrate over the exposure period for this study, especially in salt fog and immersion conditions. However, this coating showed less coating degradation compared to the coating without the presence of microbeads.