This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A single application of a "smart" self-repairing coating is being developed to dramatically extend rust protection for buildings, bridges, cars and other steel components. University of Queensland nanomaterials experts have engineered powderlike particles that can turn water-based paint into self-repairing corrosion shields with the potential to slow rusting by more than 600 times compared with existing high-performance coatings.
Asep Nugraha said the particles were effectively tiny containers that released rust-inhibiting molecules to protect damaged areas of the coating. "All rustproof coatings inevitably wear down over time; there is no stopping that," Nugraha, from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), said. "What 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." The study is published in the journal Small Science.
The Australasian Corrosion Association calculates the annual impact of rust at about $90 billion across the nation's oil and gas, water and wastewater, infrastructure and defense industries. Nugraha said rust protection was also an expensive and time-consuming task for businesses and governments responsible for the upkeep of public assets, including bridges. "For structures like bridges, applying a rustproof coating comes at great effort and cost, often to the public," Nugraha said.
"But imagine, for example, if you only had to put a single coat of paint on the Story Bridge that protected it for more than 100 years." To create the coating, Nugraha and his team encased the common rust inhibitor benzotriazole in an intricate nanostructure that, when added to waterborne polyurethane coatings, creates a composite that is highly responsive to changes in acidity. "Each tiny particle is basically a nanocontainer that releases repair molecules only when the conditions demand it." Electrochemical testing indicates Nugraha's self-healing coating can restrict corrosion to 37 nanometers per year, 600 times more effectively than many existing "high-performance" rust-protection products that report an ability to restrict annual corrosion to 0.025 mm. "It 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." Nugraha said plans were imminent for pilot-scale testing of the smart coating, with a goal of producing a commercial product within the next five years.
"Nanoarchitects work at an extremely small scale to build things that often defy what is physically possible," Nugraha said. "It is incredible to think that we could soon be telling people they might not have to worry about something rusting for several lifetimes." Asep Sugih Nugraha et al, Micelle‐Assisted Encapsulation Strategy in Metal‐Organic Framework Nanocontainers Enables Durable Corrosion Protection, Small Science (2026). DOI: 10.1002/smsc.70367 Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019.
She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile → Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast.
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