improve infrastructure

#freetheScience for innovations in materials and engineering

Each year, worldwide infrastructure corrosion costs $2.2 trillion, not including losses from environmental damage, resource waste, production downtime, or human injury. 

There’s more than 2.5 million miles of pipeline running under our feet all across the globe. If not properly taken care of, these pipelines can rupture – leaking natural gas into the environment and injuring or even killing people. Electrochemists like Scott Lillard guarantee the infrastructure under our feet is safe and reliable by focusing his work on controlling corrosion rates that if not addressed, could lead to catastrophic failures.

The elevated lead levels that resulted in the Flint, MI water crisis highlighted just how vulnerable infrastructure in even the most developed countries could be. With the work of electrochemists like Gerald Frankel, we can apply cutting-edge corrosion technology to pipelines, ensuring safe drinking water to everyone with access.

The scientists and engineers working in electrochemistry and solid state science understand infrastructure corrosion and create ways to protect against it: from advanced sensors that enable engineers to monitor environmental stressors on buildings, bridges, and tunnels to corrosion-resistant alloys and coatings.

Electrochemists aren’t just preserving our current infrastructure. With innovations like CO2NCRETE—a concrete-like material made from recaptured carbon dioxide—and green grid-scale energy storage solutions, they’re creating the infrastructure necessary for a cleaner, more sustainable future.