Preparation of graphene oxide modified by titanium dioxide to enhance the anti-corrosion performance of epoxy coatings

Solvent-based epoxy resins are often used for the anti-corrosion purpose but their cured process fabricating plentiful micro-pore via solvent evaporation is an intrinsic shortcoming and it is thus necessary to obstacle their micro-pore for enhancement antiseptic property. With the purpose of the enhancement, we synthesized TiO2-GO sheet hybrids using titanium dioxide loading on graphene oxide sheets with the help of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, and dispersing the sheets into epoxy resin at a low weight fraction of 2%. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) test and monitoring coatings' morphology in corrosion process reveal that the corrosion resistant performance is significantly enhanced by the addition of TiO2-GO hybrids to epoxy. Comparisons with other nanofillers including TiO2 and graphene oxide (GO) indicate that TiO2-GO hybrids exhibit an obvious superiority in enhancing the corrosion resistant of epoxy coatings at the same contents. The superiority of the TiO2-GO hybrids is related to their exfoliation, dispersion and excellent plugging micro-pore property arising from their laminated structure. Furthermore, the corrosion resistant mechanisms were tentatively proposed for the TiO2-GO/epoxy coatings. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.