Robust, hydrophobic anti-corrosion coating prepared by PDMS modified epoxy composite with graphite nanoplatelets/nano-silica hybrid nanofillers

Despite the significant efforts researchers made, the existing hydrophobic coating systems are still facing challenges such as low durability and weak mechanical robustness. In this study, a nanocomposite coating was fabricated with the hybrid nanofiller reinforcement and modified polymeric resin. The combination of these two reinforcements significantly improved the overall performance of the neat epoxy, with a chemical and mechanical stable hydrophobic property. Compared with the neat epoxy coating, the developed coating was shown by resistance to exposure to corrosive environment and physical abrasion, not reducing the coating's corrosion resistance or hydrophobicity. The addition of graphite nanoplatelets/nano-silica hybrid nanofillers significantly enhanced the anti-corrosion and mechanical properties, such as barrier performance, abrasion resistance, and tensile properties. Meanwhile, polydimethylsiloxane was introduced to modify epoxy resin to improve the hydrophobicity, and the contact angle was increased from 50 degrees to 110 degrees. Results revealed that the integration of these reinforcements had improved the overall performance of the coating, as the coating consisted of outstanding anti-corrosion performance, wear resistance, mechanical strength, water-repellency property, and damage tolerance. Moreover, the facile fabrication method and simple application procedure exhibited its potential toward large-scale commercialization for metallic infrastructures.

Automated summary

In this study, a nanocomposite coating was developed using hybrid nanofiller reinforcement and modified polymeric resin, significantly improving its overall performance, including chemical stability, mechanical robustness hydrophobicity, corrosion resistance, and mechanical properties.