A promising nanocomposite from CNTs and nanoceria: nanostructured fillers in polyurethane coatings for surface protection

The balanced combination of nanostructured carbon materials and metal oxide nanoparticles has been considered as an efficient reinforcement material in developing next-generation multifunctional coatings. Herein, we demonstrate a general approach to fabricate a CNT based nanocomposite with the inclusion of CeO2 nanoparticles that can be effectively implemented as a reinforcement material in surface protective coatings. The synthesized CNT/CeO2 nanocomposite was characterized by spectral and surface morphological analyses, which indicated that the CeO2 nanoparticles were successfully deposited onto the surface of the CNTs. The XRD pattern shows the semi-crystalline nature of the CNTs and the face centered cubic structure of the CeO2 nanoparticles. The prepared nanocomposite has subsequently been used as a nanofiller in polyurethane (PU) coatings for surface protection of steel substrates and a remarkable synergistic effect of nano-ceria and CNTs has been observed. The corrosion resistance of steel coated with a PU coating containing CNT/CeO2 was pointedly higher than with a pure PU coating and a PU coating with CNTs alone. This result suggests a new prospect for solving the corrosion issues encountered on steel structures in industrial applications by using multifunctional hybrid coatings with nanostructured reinforcements.