Paint That Stops Rust—Completely

Traditionally, paint has provided the most economical method for protecting steel against corrosion. However, as people who live in the Midwest know well, paint cannot prevent a car from rusting indefinitely. Eventually, flaws develop in the paint that allow the ravages of rusting to take place. 

This situation may soon change. Chemists at Glidden Research Center in Ohio have developed a paint called Rustmaster Pro that worked so well to prevent rusting in its initial tests that the scientists did not believe their results. Steel coated with the new paint showed no signs of rusting after an astonishing 10,000 hours of exposure in a salt spray chamber at 38°C. 

Rustmaster is a water-based polymer formulation that prevents corrosion in two different ways. First, the polymer layer that cures in air forms a barrier impenetrable to both oxygen and water vapor. Second, the chemicals in the coating react with the steel surface to produce an interlayer between the metal and the polymer coating. This interlayer is a complex mineral called pyroaurite that contains cations of the form [M1 xZr(OH)2]x+, where 

In addition to having an extraordinary corrosion-fighting ability, Rustmaster yields an unusually small quantity of volatile solvents as it dries. A typical paint can produce from 1 to 5 kg of volatiles per gallon Rustmaster produces only 0.05 kg. This paint may signal a new era in corrosion prevention.  

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