Chloride-free biodegradable organic acid hydrolyzed zinc silicate coating

Partially hydrolyzed ethyl silicate has widely been used as a binder to formulate inorganic zinc silicate paint for anticorrosive coating applications. Hydrochloric acid is used most popularly to catalyze the hydrolysis of ethyl silicate. Although different acids have been tried as catalysts for ethyl silicate hydrolysis, no attempt has been made to make stable paints out of those hydrolyzed silicate binders. In this study, environment benign biodegradable organic acids such as oxalic acid, citric acid, lactic acid and acetic acid were used for the hydrolysis of ethyl silicate and compared with the hydrolysis using conventional hydrochloric acid. The hydrolyzed silicate sols were pigmented further with silica powder and evaluated for their stability. Of the various organic acids catalyst used, only oxalic acid catalyzed sol acted as a stable binder system. The pigmented binder was then mixed with metallic zinc to formulate anticorrosive inorganic zinc silicate paint. The resultant coatings were characterized for various physical, surface, mechanical and chemical resistance properties such as drying, hardness, adhesion (cross hatch) and solvent resistance. Corrosion resistance properties were analyzed by means of salt spray, open circuit potential (OCP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results revealed that the physical, mechanical, chemical and anticorrosive properties of the coating hydrolyzed with hydrochloric acid and oxalic acid are comparable. Thus, a chloride free biodegradable organic acid hydrolyzed inorganic zinc silicate primer is reported and due to its long term stability same also can be scaled up commercially. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.