ANI reported that researchers at the Fraunhofer Institutes for Silicate Research ISC in Wurzburg and for Machine Tools & Forming Technology IWU in Chemnitz have developed an alternative anti corrosion method based on nano composites.

Researchers at the Institute for Corrosion Protection Dresden GmbH had submerged steel sheets into a coating sol, applied a power coating and exposed them to various tests to produce the new nano materials.

While the steel sheets were kept in a chamber filled with atomized brine for 360 hours at a temperature of 35 degrees, the metal sheets had also been placed in an environment chamber with a relative humidity of 100% for 240 hours.

Dr Johanna Kron project manager of ISC said that "These coatings protect most galvanized materials almost as well as commercial yellow chrome plating. Indeed, the new coatings are often even more effective than the chromium free system and chromium passivation currently on the market."

The study also found that the chromium free coated metal sheets, which were less than a thousandth of a millimeter thick, could be formed in exactly the same way as yellow chrome plated sheets.