Validation of Novel Electroactive Polymers (EAP) as Environmentally Compliant Coatings for Replacement of Hexavalent Chrome Pretreatments ESTCP
Project
Number - WP-0527
JG-PP
is targeting this ESTCP
project for an Information Exchange Project in an effort to raise awareness
across the DoD
Services/NASA
of this effort to eliminate the military's reliance on hexavalent chrome
in coatings applied to aluminum and steel alloys. EAPs
are a new approach to corrosion inhibition in that they are commonly organic,
unlike current pretreatments that contain heavy metals. The coating system
to be demonstrated and validated in this project involves the use of an
EAP
(a polyphenylenevinylene) derivative as the pretreatment material on aluminum
alloys. Numerous reports show at EAPs
coated on various substrates and exposed to corrosive environments can
inhibit and retard corrosion and have laid the foundation for the current
work using EAPs
by Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAVAIR-WD). The primary
objective of this research is to demonstrate an effective, environmentally
benign, repairable coating using EAPs as a replacement for chromated conversion
coatings pretreatment material. The secondary objective is to validate
performance with non-chromated primers on aluminum, titanium and composites.
The idea that EAPs
may function well as corrosion inhibiting compounds was first presented
by Alan MacDiarmid, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2000
for his work with conductive polymers. A final objective is to validate
performance on steel with currently used non-chromate primers. This project
will leverage the ESTCP/JG-PP
funded JTP
prepared for Validation of Non-Chromate Aluminum Pretreatments. Because
contributions to this JTP
were from Air Force, Army, Navy, NASA,
and OEMs;
it is a thorough testing guideline and will be used as our primary test
protocol. The DoD
must comply with current and future regulations from the EPA
and the US OSHA
concerning chromates. The current PEL
for hexavalent chrome is 100 micrograms per cubic meter of air (?g/m3)
and OSHA
has proposed to implement by January 2006 a PEL
limit of less than 1 µg/m3 air for all industries that use or process
hexavalent chrome. These new regulations will surely impact mission readiness,
and increase all operating costs. The use of hexavalent chrome coatings
already causes great expense in the areas of PPE,
personal health monitoring, reporting and waste disposal. These costs
will only increase when stricter regulations are passed.
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This site last updated February 28, 2008.
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