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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Microbiomes

Sec. Environmental Microbiomes

Corrosion inhibition of an aluminum alloy by environmentally derived microbial biofilms

Provisionally accepted
Zachary T BurtonZachary T Burton1Kaoru IkumaKaoru Ikuma1*Han LiuHan Liu1Nathan StummeNathan Stumme2Scott ShawScott Shaw2Steven HarrisSteven Harris1Simon LaflammeSimon Laflamme1*
  • 1Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, United States
  • 2The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Iowa City, United States

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Microbial biofilms can influence corrosion outcomes on metal surfaces. Though past studies have largely focused on microbiologically induced corrosion, we report here that environmentally derived microbial communities can form biofilms that inhibit the corrosion of an aluminum alloy. Our findings point to the importance of complex microbial communities, which are more likely to be found on metals exposed to natural environments, in determining corrosion outcomes and highlight a potential role of microbial interactions in corrosion inhibition.

Keywords: corrosion, Steel, microbial community, Biofilm, Corrosion inhibition

Received: 28 Jul 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Burton, Ikuma, Liu, Stumme, Shaw, Harris and Laflamme. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Kaoru Ikuma, kikuma@iastate.edu
Simon Laflamme, laflamme@iastate.edu

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material