Protective developments

摘要

Three current projects involving hybrid organic-inorganic sol-gel coatings are described, Anticorrosive coatings have been developed as replacements for chromium pretreatment. Bio-active coatings limit the growth of fouling and corrosion-promoting micro-organisms. Conductive polymers have been incorporated in sol-gel systems to create antieorrosive coatings.Sol-gel chemistry has a long history dating back to the 1800s. At this time the main interest lay in the development of inorganic networks from silicon and other metal alkoxide monomer precursors. However, it was not until the 1970s that sol-gel technology began to gain industrial importance when monolithic inorganic gels were formed at low temperatures and converted to glasses without the need for a high temperature melting process.