Microfluidic Electrospinning Core–Shell Nanofibers for Anti-Corrosion Coatings With Efficient Self-Healing Properties

Abstract

Self-healing materials have been extensively explored in metal anti-corrosion fields. However, improving the self-healing efficiency remains a significant work that severely limits their further development. Here, a strategy to fabricate anti-corrosion coatings with efficient self-healing properties based on microfluidic electrospinning technologies and UV-curable healing agents is reported. The damaged composite coating contains core–shell nanofibers that can be completely healed within only 30 min, indicating an outstanding healing efficiency. The corrosion current density (I_corr) of the composite coatings containing core–shell nanofibers (abbreviated as composite coatings) is lower than the coatings without any fibers (abbreviated as pure resin coatings) during the test of repeated damage and healing cycles, showing superior resistance to corrosion and repeated self-healing property. The composite coating has even better mechanical properties such as tensile strength, bending strength, and impact strength than the pure resin coating, which are explained by simulating the deformation process. These excellent properties greatly improve the practicability of self-healing coatings in the application of anti-corrosion, especially in some special fields.