{"id":893619,"date":"2026-09-16T03:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T03:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893619\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T03:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T03:32:17","slug":"aibn-develops-self-repairing-coating-to-extend-rust-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893619\/","title":{"rendered":"AIBN develops self-repairing coating to extend rust protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Electrochemical testing indicates Dr Nugraha\u2019s self-healing coating can restrict corrosion to 37 nanometers per year. Image credit: AIBN<\/a><\/p>\n

Researchers at the University of Queensland\u2019s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) have developed<\/a> a self-repairing coating designed to extend the lifespan of rust protection on steel used in infrastructure, vehicles and other applications.<\/p>\n

The coating uses powder-like particles that can be added to water-based paint to create a corrosion barrier capable of responding to damage. According to AIBN, electrochemical testing indicates the coating could restrict corrosion to 37 nanometres per year, representing a more than 600-fold improvement compared with high-performance coatings that report corrosion rates of 0.025 millimetres per year.<\/p>\n

AIBN nanoarchitect Dr Asep Nugraha said the particles functioned as small containers that release rust-inhibiting molecules when required.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll rust-proof coatings inevitably wear and tear with time, there is no stopping that,\u201d Dr Nugraha said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have created is a barrier that is constantly sensing if something is wrong so it can patch any scrapes and cracks itself, greatly extending the duration of protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The technology encases the commonly used rust inhibitor benzotriazole in a nanostructure. When incorporated into waterborne polyurethane coatings, the resulting composite responds to changes in acidity, triggering the release of the corrosion-inhibiting material.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach tiny particle is basically a nanocontainer that releases repair molecules only when the conditions demand it,\u201d Dr Nugraha said.<\/p>\n

AIBN said the potential application of the technology comes amid significant costs associated with corrosion. The Australasian Corrosion Association estimates rust has an annual impact of about $90 billion across Australia\u2019s oil and gas, water and wastewater, infrastructure and defence industries.<\/p>\n

Dr Nugraha said extending coating lifespans could reduce the maintenance required for public assets such as bridges.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor structures like bridges, applying a rust-proof coating comes at a great effort and cost, often to the public,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a coating that will last forever, but coatings that contain our technology will have a greatly expanded lifetime, meaning far less maintenance, and a much longer time between applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research has also involved AIBN PhD scholar Kwang Keat Leong, whose work focuses on controlling the growth of metal-organic framework crystals using nanocellulose derived from plants.<\/p>\n

AIBN said Leong\u2019s research found that metal-organic frameworks grown on nanocellulose could hold three times more corrosion inhibitors, while the resulting coating provided up to five times greater corrosion protection.<\/p>\n

The researchers are now planning pilot-scale testing, with the aim of developing the technology into a commercial product within five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cNanoarchitects work at an extremely small scale to build things that often defy what is physically possible,\u201d Dr Nugraha said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Electrochemical testing indicates Dr Nugraha\u2019s self-healing coating can restrict corrosion to 37 nanometers per year. Image credit: AIBN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[462978,64,63,128,26484,67288],"class_list":["post-893619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-aibn","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-steel","tag-university-of-queensland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}