Novel Highly dispersed silica/carbon nanotube nanomaterial
Researchers have portrayed a smart self-healing coating based on the highly dispersed silica/carbon nanotube nanomaterial for corrosion protection of steel.
The poor dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) limits their practical enhancement in polymer matrix due to strong Van der Waals force among them and their high aspect ratio. Now, a highly dispersed silica/carbon nanotube (HAC) nanomaterial was prepared, which effectively solved the agglomeration problem of CNTs-based materials. More importantly, test results confirm that HAC nanomaterials can achieve the loading and release of corrosion inhibitors.
Enhanced corrosion protection and excellent self-healing performance
Basing on these, the reseachers have developed a smart self-healing coating system (HACB/EP) to further improve the corrosion resistance of the coating. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) investigation shows that HACB/EP still has the highest low-frequency impedance value compared with other coatings after 30 d of immersion, and the electrochemical self-healing efficiency of HACB/EP with an artificial defect (De-HACB/EP) turns into positive values at the second (24–48 h) and third (48–72 h) stage. As the developers point out, the enhanced corrosion protection and excellent self-healing performance of HACB/EP may greatly promote the development of smart anticorrosion coatings.
The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 164, March 2022.
