Sustainable Materials for Corrosion Protection on Aircraft Structures

The corrosion of metal surfaces is one of the most critical issues in aviation, where aircraft are subjected to very extreme climatic and operating conditions. Hexavalent chromium, Cr (VI), based coatings provide an effective corrosion protection at relatively low cost, but unfortunately their usage has a significant impact on the environment. To comply with new regulations (REACH) and to ensure effectiveness against corrosion, the current interest of researchers and investors is focused on the synthesis and the design of eco-friendly and safer coatings, to develop an alternative and innovative corrosion protection coating systems, characterized by specific performance in terms of good adhesion, barrier, and rheological properties. The development of innovative materials and the implementation of new technologies can allow widening the safety window in all the process phases from the production to the disposal. These research activities are focused on the development of anticorrosive and chromate-free coatings, by modifying metal-based primer formulations. The aim is toward the improvement in the anticorrosive performance and durability respect to the systems already known in the literature through the incorporation of sustainable compounds or less toxic metals as corrosion inhibitors to reduce the environmental impact.