Synthesis of Graphene Oxide-Based Sulfonated Oligoanilines Coatings for Synergistically Enhanced Corrosion Protection in 3.5% NaCl Solution

As a vital derivative of graphene, graphene oxide (GO) is widely applied in various fields, such as transparent electrodes, solar cells, energy storage, and corrosion protection due to the large specific surface area and abundant active sites. However, compared with graphene, the application of GO has been less reported in metal corrosion protection field. Therefore, in our study, 3-aminobenzenesulfonic acid was selected to combine with oligoanilines to fabricate the GO- based sulfonated oligoanilines coatings for marine corrosion protection application. The obtained composite coatings were covered on the surface of Q235 steel, which is one of the most important structural marine materials. Fourier transform infrared spectra were utilized to prove the existence of different bonds and functional groups of aniline trimer and sulfonated aniline trimer (SAT). Scanning electron microscopy was applied to verify the combination of GO and SAT. What's more, transmission electron microscopy was applied to observe the surface appearance of the obtained GO-SAT composite material. Besides, the results of electrochemical measurements performed in 3.5 wt % NaCl solution showed excellent corrosion-protective properties of GO/SAT-coated epoxy resin with a dosage of 10 mg of GO compared with the pure epoxy resin. Moreover, the enhancement of surface hydrophobic property, to some extent, is in favor of preventing the absorption of corrosive medium and water molecules revealed by contact angle test. The addition of GO can make the diffusion pathway of the corrosive medium longer and more circuitous, while SAT has displayed excellent solvent solubility while maintaining corrosion-protective properties similar to those of polyanilines so that the corrosion-protective properties of the modified coatings improve significantly due to the synergistically enhanced corrosion protection of GO and SAT.