Corrosion characteristics of PPY/GO/CuO nano-composite powder reinforced epoxy coatings on IF steel

Abstract

The present study has been designed to test the corrosion performance of epoxy based nano-composite coatings on Interstitial Free (IF) steel. PPy and PPy nano-composite powders were formed by polymerization of pyrrole using ferric chloride oxidant. PPy nano-composite powders were synthesized including Graphene oxide (GO) and Copper oxide (CuO) nano-particles. Four combinations have been undertaken in this study viz. pure PPy, PPy-GO (PG), PPy-CuO (PC) and PPy-GO-CuO (PGC). SEM/EDS and XRD results validated the uniform embedding of nano-particles in the pyrrole matrix during polymerization. Moreover, TGA analysis has also confirmed the enhancement of thermal stability of PPy with the incorporation of nano-particles. Further, epoxy (EP) powder was loaded with different concentration of synthesized composite powders to optimize the weight percent (wt%) of PPy, GO and CuO for testing the corrosion characteristics. The different coating configurations were applied on IF steel samples and electrochemical & salt spray testing have been conducted. It has been concluded that coating configuration EP/P2G0.5C1.0 has shown maximum corrosion protection efficiency () of approximately 99 %. Moreover, other three configurations EP/P2, EP/P2G0.5 and EP/P2C1.0 have also shown noteworthy results of of 85, 96 and 97 % respectively. SEM images for cross-sectional view of coatings have also confirmed the uniformity of coatings on to the IF steel. The suitability of these synthesized coatings has also been verified via adhesion test evidencing no significant change in adhesive strength.