Abstract
David Scantlebury, who died last year, devoted his academic research career to the understanding of corrosion and corrosion protection. For 38 years David was based in the Corrosion and Protection Centre in the University of Manchester (formerly UMIST). During this time he published extensively, travelled to many conferences (something he was always very keen on doing!) and gained world-wide recognition in his field. With over 220 published outputs he remained active after retirement, his most recent paper being published in April this year. In recognition of his influence, the University promoted him to a personal Chair in 2006 and one year later the Institute of Corrosion awarded him the U. R. Evans Award. This special issue of Corrosion Engineering, Science and Technology honours David's research interests and, not entirely by coincidence, reflects on some of his favourite countries to visit. Although David was willing to turn his hand to almost anything this selection of papers focusses on his first, and continuing, interests in marine corrosion and corrosion protection by coatings.
David undertook his PhD with Jack Mayne in Cambridge where he studied ionic conduction in polymer films. 1 So it is fitting that the first paper, by his contemporary in Mayne's lab, Douglas Mills, reflects this work using a modern electrochemical approach. 2 His final research project at Manchester which he was literally supervising from his bed, was concerned with corrosion protection of steel in the sea 3 so the next paper (from Australia, his favourite country – apart from Cornwall that is), explores his other main research interest in considering the mechanisms of accelerated low water corrosion in ports and harbours. 4 Amongst the first papers published by David after moving to Manchester was on the suitability of electropolymerisation as a method for forming organic films 5 and so the paper by Mert et al., 6 which considers the electrochemical synthesis of conductive polymers for protection of aluminium, was an easy choice for inclusion in this selection. David was also amused by what he saw as the current fascination with all things “nano”, particularly since many paint pigments have always lain within this size range. In one of last projects, sadly unpublished, he looked at exfoliated clays as a nano-composite pigment material within epoxy and, in collaboration with myself, studied functionalisation of surfaces with silanes. He also greatly liked Iran, the country and the people, collaborating and visiting there several times 7 so inclusion of the paper by Mostafaie and Nasirpouri 8 is appropriate as is the work by Suleiman et al. on hybrid organic-inorganic coatings. 9
In the mid-1990's David worked extensively on coil-coated steel receiving a number of research grants in this area, mainly on cut-edge corrosion. 10 One of the main problems was damage and cracking of the coating caused by deformation during manufacture and by impacts in service. The paper by Hausbrand et al. attempts to set allowable limits of deformation on coated steel such that coating integrity is retained; 11 this is a topic that, for any coating system is rarely if ever studied systematically.
The final two papers in this tribute combine together David's interests in sacrificial anodes and coatings. 12 Metallisation of steel, whether by zinc, aluminium or zinc-aluminium, has a long history particularly for protection of large structures such as bridges. From Japan (another country David liked to travel to) we find that over-coating of metallised layers is problematic, 13 and from the UK in what may be David's final publication (although never say never) the clear message is not to use sprayed aluminium underneath paint. 14
I hope this selection of papers provide not only a suitable survey on current trends in coatings (David would want no less), but also a fair reflection on his research life and interests.
Corrosion and Protection Centre,
School of Materials,
University of Manchester