Interactions between marine microorganisms and metal: the start point of a new bioinspired solution for corrosion protection

Among the strategies currently used to protect metallic materials from corrosion, and thus increase their durability, conversion treatments and coatings can be considered as the most efficient and cost-effective alternatives. However, these techniques must comply with increasingly stringent regulations such as REACH. On another note, in the field of interactions between microorganisms and conductive material, it has been shown that microorganisms can not only accelerate corrosion in some cases (biocorrosion or MIC) but also inhibit it in others, thus protecting the underlying material (MIC Inhibition). In this context, the MICOATEC ANR project is based on the observation that interactions between an aluminium alloy (AA5083) and microorganisms in the marine environment lead to the formation of a protective layer against corrosion. The MICOATEC project aims to develop, via a biomimetic strategy, a new type of process for producing anti-corrosion coatings. The main goal is therefore to translate the natural biotic process into an abiotic technological process for corrosion protection, without replicating the biofilm itself or incorporating active biocompounds into the coating matrix.