Graphene: The Thinnest Known Coating for Corrosion Protection

Graphene, a two-dimensional (2-D) atomically thin film of carbon atoms, has unique characteristics that have triggered unprecedented research excitement. Besides several other unique properties, graphene possesses remarkable chemical inertness. Graphene coatings either a single or a few atomic layers thick on metals has been shown to improve their corrosion resistance by up to one-and-half orders of magnitude. Although the studies on this topic are limited to just a few carried out in 2011-2013, great variability is found in the extent of corrosion resistance from graphene reported in these studies. This article presents a brief review of graphene as a corrosion-protecting coating, identifies potential and presents some new data to suggest graphene as durable corrosion-resistant coating.