Unlike regular power transmission towers located inland, the 380-meter-tall structure o is covered with a heavy-duty, anti-corrosion paint developed by Wang Liping and his team at the Key Laboratory of Marine New Materials and Application Technology, Ningbo Institute of Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Such a paint is important because the sea breeze and spray contain large amounts of salt and chloride that eat away at metals. In fact, the annual losses caused by corrosion in China is significantly higher than the losses caused by natural disasters, and can amount to as much as 5 percent of GDP. Of all the types of corrosion, marine corrosion results in the highest economic losses.

Wang, who is the director of the lab and a delegate to the 15th Communist Party of China (CPC) Zhejiang Provincial Congress, was introduced to the world of marine anti-corrosion coatings and special functional protective materials when he joined the lab in 2015.

According to him, researching such materials often required scientists like himself to be outdoors, and sometimes even in environments with extreme weather conditions.

Wang Liping (right) checks the experimental data. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

One of the places he traveled to for research purposes was Xisha Island, where he had to endure ground temperatures that could swell to as high as 50 degrees Celsius. Moreover, the temperature of the steel structures that he had to work could reach a staggering 80 degrees Celsius. Most people would return from such projects with blisters on their hands. Wang was no exception.

The research done by Wang and his team is considered vital as there used to be no domestically developed coatings that were good enough to withstand the corrosive power of the sea breeze and spray.

Over the past few years, Wang and his team have completed 20 important projects made important contributions to the innovation and development of sea-related extreme environmental service materials.