Barnacle cement protein as an efficient bioinspired corrosion inhibitor

To prevent corrosion damage in aggressive environments such as seawater, metallic surfaces are coated with corrosion inhibitors usually made of organic molecules. Unfortunately, these inhibitors often exhibit environmental toxicity and are hazardous to natural habitats. Thus, developing greener and...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Communications materials Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 11 - 15
Main Authors:	Bui, My Hanh, Hiew, Shu Hui, Salim, Teddy, Saw, Wan Geok, Webster, Richard D., Grüber, Gerhard, Mu, Yuguang, Miserez, Ali
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 23-02-2024 Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio
Subjects:	631/45/612/1250 639/301/54/989 639/301/923/966 639/638/455/953 82/80 Additives Biomimetics Chemistry and Materials Science Corrosion Corrosion environments Corrosion inhibitors Corrosion prevention Damage prevention Low carbon steels Marine environment Materials Science Organic chemistry Proteins Seawater Substrates
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	To prevent corrosion damage in aggressive environments such as seawater, metallic surfaces are coated with corrosion inhibitors usually made of organic molecules. Unfortunately, these inhibitors often exhibit environmental toxicity and are hazardous to natural habitats. Thus, developing greener and effective corrosion inhibitors is desirable. Here, we present an alternative green inhibitor, the recombinant protein r MrCP20 derived from the adhesive cement of the barnacle Megabalanus rosa and show that it efficiently protects mild steel against corrosion under high salt conditions mimicking the marine environment. We reveal that these anti-corrosion properties are linked to the protein’s biophysical properties, namely its strong adsorption to surfaces combined with its interaction with Fe ions released by steel substrates, which forms a stable layer that increases the coating’s impedance and delays corrosion. Our findings highlight the synergistic action of r MrCP20 in preventing corrosion and provide molecular-level guidelines to develop alternative green corrosion inhibitor additives. Metallic surfaces are often coated with corrosion inhibitors to prevent damage but these are typically toxic to the environment. Here, a recombinant adhesive cement protein from barnacles is shown to effectively protect steel against corrosion under marine environment conditions.
ISSN:	2662-4443 2662-4443
DOI:	10.1038/s43246-024-00445-z