Recent progress in superhydrophobic coatings used for steel protection: A review

Abstract Since the discovery of the self-cleaning properties of the lotus effect, the wetting of surfaces were intensively investigated due to their potential application in many industrial sectors. The corrosion of steel is a major industrial problem and its economic and environmental consequences are widely known. The use of superhydrophobic coatings appear to be one of the promising solutions to protect steel from corrosion effects. This review provides an overview of the superhydrophobic coatings reported in literature for steel protection and their performances. First, to obtain a comprehensive perspective, superhydrophobicity that is present in nature is concisely introduced at the beginning of this review. Second, the different models used to evaluate the wettability of a rough surface and the equations governing the static contact angle are discussed and commented. Finally, the different approaches used to fabricate the artificial superhydrophobic coatings and their impact on the corrosion performance for steel are also examined.