Environmental Impact Assessment of an Innovative Sustainable Thermoplastic Anticorrosion Coating for Aluminum Alloy AA2024

ABSTRACT This study evaluates the environmental performance of an innovative thermoplastic anticorrosion coating based on poly(phenylene methylene) (PPM) for aluminum alloy AA2024, using a cradle‐to‐grave life cycle assessment (LCA) compared with conventional epoxy coatings as a benchmark material. Utilizing the area of aluminum alloy that can be protected with 1 kg of PPM coating (22.2 m 2 ) as a functional unit, PPM shows substantial environmental benefits, reducing impacts by 50%–90% in 11 of the 18 categories analyzed, including global warming potential, freshwater ecotoxicity, and human toxicity. An additional gate‐to‐gate analysis of the PPM process identifies critical stages for optimization, with results benchmarked against state‐of‐the‐art epoxy systems. PPM's recyclability enables multiple reuse cycles, supporting circular economy principles, while conventional epoxy requires end‐of‐life incineration. Superior environmental performance arises from lower energy consumption during application (5 min at 120°C vs. 48 h at 40°C for epoxy) and coating thicknesses about 10 times lower than the state of the art. The thermoplastic nature of PPM also allows easy recovery and reapplication, reducing disposal issues associated with thermosets. The study also highlights the extensive use of solvents, which can be optimized to further enhance PPM's environmental advantages. Despite minor trade‐offs associated with the synthesis stage due to the use of hazardous organic solvents such as xylene and chloroform, PPM represents a viable, eco‐friendly alternative for corrosion protection, offering quantitative insights into environmental hotspots and potential for broad industrial applications.