Western chemists engage in ’game-changer’ metals research

Metal corrosion - in large steel bridges, computer microchips and medical nanoparticles, for example - cost billions of dollars in damage. Western researchers are integral to a massive new project to develop molecular coatings that would prevent corrosion. Photo by Barske Francke of Pixabay Metals are designed to be strong. More than anything else, though, they also want to degrade, to oxidize, to corrode. When that happens - whether writ large in rusty bridges or etched into tiny objects such as computer microchips or nanoparticles used to deliver medicine to cancer patients - loss of structural integrity can be catastrophic. The cost of corrosion and metal failure is incalculable; the potential benefit from creating more robust structures, almost limitless. Now a team of Western chemists, through a national project led by Queen's University , is working to bring that game-changer to life.