Since the discovery of graphene in 2004, this atomically thin hexagonally packed carbon layer has drawn phenomenal attention as a new disruptive material of 21st century owing to its fascinating electrical, mechanical, and optical properties. To date, an enormous interest in both academia and industry has already generated critical mass of research and development activity that resulted in approximately 100,000 journal publications and 15,000 patents on graphene based technology. In the last decade, graphene has also been extensively used for the development of advanced multifunctional protective coatings due to its excellent chemical resistance, impermeability to gases, adsorption capacity, antibacterial properties, mechanical strength, lubricity, and thermal stability as shown in Figure 1. The useful functional properties along with the structural merits of this 2D material have great potential for applications in the field of protective coatings including corrosion resistant, flame retardant, wear/scratch resistant, anti-fouling, pollutant adsorption, noise absorption, moisture insulation, and antiseptic coatings. Moreover, the recent ban on the use of many hazardous coating constituents (Cr (VI), Co, Cd, Cu, TBT, halogenated fire retardants) created tremendous scope for graphene to dominate coating industry as an efficient substitute of conventional hazardous materials. More importantly, the natural abundance of low-cost and high-quality graphite as the precursor for the top-down synthesis of graphene derivatives is an absolute advantage to reinforce the industrial transformation of graphene based composite coatings for multifunctional applications.

Since the discovery of graphene in 2004, this atomically thin hexagonally packed carbon layer has drawn phenomenal attention as a new disruptive material of 21st century owing to its fascinating electrical, mechanical, and optical properties. To date, an enormous interest in both academia and industry has already generated critical mass of research and development activity that resulted in approximately 100,000 journal publications and 15,000 patents on graphene based technology. In the last decade, graphene has also been extensively used for the development of advanced multifunctional protective coatings due to its excellent chemical resistance, impermeability to gases, adsorption capacity, antibacterial properties, mechanical strength, lubricity, and thermal stability as shown in Figure 1. The useful functional properties along with the structural merits of this 2D material have great potential for applications in the field of protective coatings including corrosion resistant, flame retardant, wear/scratch resistant, anti-fouling, pollutant adsorption, noise absorption, moisture insulation, and antiseptic coatings. Moreover, the recent ban on the use of many hazardous coating constituents (Cr (VI), Co, Cd, Cu, TBT, halogenated fire retardants) created tremendous scope for graphene to dominate coating industry as an efficient substitute of conventional hazardous materials. More importantly, the natural abundance of low-cost and high-quality graphite as the precursor for the top-down synthesis of graphene derivatives is an absolute advantage to reinforce the industrial transformation of graphene based composite coatings for multifunctional applications.