Facile fabrication of superhydrophobic nanocomposites coating materials using nanoemulsion polymerization technique and its application for protecting the petroleum carbon steel pipelines

This paper aims to fabricate new superhydrophobic nanocomposite coating materials to protect the inner surfaces of the petroleum pipelines from corrosion. The batch emulsification polymerization technique (BEM) was used as a facial eco-friendly technique to prepare three hydrophobic (styrene/vinyl acetate) copolymers. The sol–gel method was used to prepare SiO₂ nanoparticles (SiO₂-NPs) with average size ranging from 90 to 101 nm. The functionalized SiO₂-NPs were prepared using hexadecyl trimethoxy silane (HDTS) as a precursor to increasing the hydrophobicity character of the unfunctionalized SiO₂-NPs. Three superhydrophobic [(styrene/vinyl acetate copolymer/functionalized SiO₂ nanoparticles (SiO₂NPs)] nanocomposites denoted as M1, M3, and M5 were fabricated by incorporating 1, 3, and 5 wt% of the functionalized-SiO₂NPs into the styrene/vinyl acetate copolymer, respectively. The effectiveness of the fabricated nanocomposite coating materials was analyzed using contact angle measurement and transmission electron and atomic force microscopies. The results showed that the highest contact angle of 161.21^o was obtained by M5-nanocomposite. The highest corrosion efficiency of 99.63% was obtained at 300 ppm concentration of M5-nanocomposite-coated solution, 298 K, and 24 days.