Protecting carbon steel from corrosion by laser in situ grown graphene films

Corrosion of metals causes tremendous financial loss and disasters every year. Graphene is a promising candidate for anti-corrosion coating, due to its unique properties, e.g. chemical inertness, impermeability and high conductivity. Despite being a commercially important material, it is difficult to grow graphene on carbon steels and is therefore prominently grown on copper or nickel substrates. Here, we report a unique approach to grow graphene on carbon steel and explore its anti-corrosion application. By introducing Ni element into carbon steel through a laser alloying process to form a Ni/Fe alloy catalyst, we make it feasible to grow graphene on carbon steel. The corrosion rate of graphene covered carbon steel is only 0.05 mm/year, much lesser than that of the stainless steel (0.09 mm/year). The corrosion resistance is up to similar to 1900 Omega cm(2), which is almost 7 times that of original steel (270.7 Omega cm(2)). These results indicate that the in situ grown graphene coatings perform very well in resisting harsh environments, much better than stainless steel itself. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.