Superhydrophobic coatings for steel pipeline protection in oil and gas industries: a comprehensive review

Abstract

Recently, there have been numerous deadly gas and oil pipeline explosions in the United States, resulting in extensive investigations based on corrosion and aged foundations. Superhydrophobic coatings are being developed using smart nano-based materials to act as protection layers on the surface of metallic parts against mechanical aggressors, corrosion, and fouling agents. These coatings have proven to be ideal candidates to protect steel pipelines, recently gaining much popularity. This review paper provides a comprehensive and critical assessment of the newly developed superhydrophobic coatings for steel pipelines, with a focus on their applications in the oil and gas industries. At first, the basic concept of wettability is introduced and the physical models governing the different kinds of wettability conditions are derived and explained. Then, various methods used to synthesize superhydrophobic coatings on steel substrates and recent findings from research work on different coating fabrication methods are discussed. Current applications of these developed superhydrophobic coatings for corrosion prevention, deicing, and anti-biofouling, among other treatments, within the last five years and their future trends are also extensively discussed. Based on the literature, of all the methods used for fabricating superhydrophobic coatings for steel pipelines, spraying is the most versatile and widely used. This method provides facile and economically viable mass fabrication of coatings on various steel substrates with desired microstructures. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are reported to be very resistant to microorganisms when used to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces. Also, shape-memory polymers have recently been incorporated in the fabrication of superhydrophobic surfaces for self-healing functionality.