The research challenge of delamination of self-healing coatings is a real-time problem concerning the chemicals, materials, metallurgical, and coating industries around the globe. Therefore, from a research and application point of view, investigating the kinetic parameters involved in delamination becomes significantly important. The project, as well as the research area, is multi-disciplinary, offering a unique blend of materials science, electrochemistry, physical chemistry, organic chemistry, and corrosion technology. The research project will give insights into developing smarter self-healing coatings to minimize the global costs incurred due to corrosion. This is a challenging yet very interesting project to work on, and I am motivated to take on this challenge and work towards a solution.
Self-healing organic coatings are sustainable materials which have the potential to increase the performance of the substrate they are applied on, thereby preventing surface and microscopic damage. Their ability to heal, increase substrate efficiency and cost reduction as a result of material damage makes them highly applicable in the coating industry. This requires the design and development of robust and environmentally friendly multifunctional materials for the prevention of corrosion, incorporation into self-healing organic coatings, release mechanisms and kinetics. One of the major factors affecting this would be the delamination of the coating while self-healing. Therefore, it becomes important to investigate the interfacial phenomenon taking place while self-healing. I would like to investigate the interfacial interactions taking place, optimize the parameters while developing self-healing coatings, and design new self-healing coatings with the ultimate goal of reducing the damage and costs incurred due to the damage. Surface characterization would play an important role in the optimization of such coatings and studying the underlying interfacial interactions. Thus, detailed surface characterization would be an important aspect of my PhD project. Furthermore, I plan to actively participate in trainings, workshops, conferences, and actively communicate my research work.
