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 ∼1900 Ω cm2, which is almost 7 times that of original steel (270.7 Ω cm2). These results indicate that the in situ grown graphene coatings perform very well in resisting harsh environments, much better than stainless steel itself.