Modification, Degradation and Evaluation of a Few Organic Coatings for Some Marine Applications

Abstract

Organic coatings for marine applications must have great corrosion protection and antifouling performance. This review presents an overview of recent investigations into coating microstructure, corrosion protection performance, antifouling behavior, and evaluation methods, particularly the substrate effect and environmental influence on coating protectiveness, aiming to improve operational practice in the coating industry. The review indicates that the presence of defects in an organic coating is the root cause of the corrosion damage of the coating. The protection performance of a coating system can be enhanced by proper treatment of the substrate and physical modification of the coating. Environmental factors may synergistically accelerate the coating degradation. The long-term protection performance of a coating system is extremely difficult to predict without coating defect information. Non-fouling coating and self-repairing coatings may be promising antifouling approaches. Based on the review, some important research topics are suggested, such as the exploration of rapid evaluation methods, the development of long-term cost-effective antifouling coatings in real marine environments.