Enhancing the corrosion resistance of aluminum by superhydrophobic silane/graphene oxide coating

Superhydrophobic silane/graphene oxide (GO) composite coating was successfully synthesized on aluminum surface by a facile dipping and curing process. The structure and composition of the obtained composite coating was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Surface characterization results suggested that the single-layer GO functionalized with silane and formed uniform coating on aluminum surface. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and electrochemical noise were used to investigate the anti-corrosion behavior of the prepared superhydrophobic silane/GO coating on aluminum in 1 M NaCl solution. The EIS results indicated that the prepared silane/GO coating exhibited the largest impedance compared with the silane coating and bare aluminum substrate. Besides, the values of R-ct for the prepared superhydrophobic silane (936 omega cm(2)) and silane/GO coatings (1670 omega cm(2)) are more than 24 and 43 times that of the bare aluminum substrate (38.5 omega cm(2)), respectively. Moreover, the pitting corrosion process of aluminum in NaCl solution was strongly inhibited in the prepared superhydrophobic silane and silane/GO coatings. Therefore, this work supplies an easy and economical way to prepare outstanding anti-corrosion coatings on aluminum surface, which promises a significant potential for practical applications.

Automated summary

A superhydrophobic silane/graphene oxide composite coating was synthesized on aluminum surface through a facile dipping and curing process. The surface characterization and electrochemical tests demonstrated that the coating exhibited excellent anti-corrosion properties.