Multi-functional low-cost epoxy based nanocomposite corrosion resistant coatings

Nawani, Pranav; Gese, Natalie

Corrosion is a significant global issue, resulting in high maintenance and repair costs. Long term structural integrity of metal and its products is directly dependent on its anti-corrosive properties. Surfaces exposed to marine environments are prone to microbial attachment followed by biofilm formation, resulting in bio-fouling. Hence coatings are used to protect the surfaces against corrosion and biofilm formation. Currently various organic coatings are used to protect metals and the cost of these coatings is directly dependent upon the cost of the fillers used to impart specific properties. Conventionally fillers such as zinc, Titanium and Silver based compounds are used in coatings for corrosion and/or microbial protection of surfaces, which are expensive. The underlying issue with using these compounds as fillers is that they can adversely effect mechanical and barrier properties, due to which they are used as a base coat and additional fillers are used to compensate for such property losses. Most of these coatings need an enhanced anti-microbial surface and improvement in their barrier efficacy against water/moisture, oxygen, and chloride ions. Hence it is imperative to develop low-cost fillers that will enhance both active & passive corrosion resistance properties, prevent microbial attachment on the surfaces and will not degrade any polymeric properties. In this work, ASL is developing a multi-functional low cost epoxy-clay nanocomposite coating, for microbial and corrosion resistance. Multi-functional coatings are developed using a multi-component approach, where the innovation lays in deriving the benefits of various fillers through a combinatorial approach to synergistic harvesting of functionality and vigor. The primary filler is a naturally abundant clay material and, owing to their sheet like morphology and layered structures, their surface can be modified to achieve the desired property enhancements. Sheet like morphology enhances polymer filler interactions, resulting in enhanced mechanical and reduced barrier properties. The presence of clay in the coating materials will mitigate the impact of moisture and chloride ions (in marine environment) providing passive protection to the coated surface. Modification of clay with transition metal ions (TMI) enhances corrosion resistance properties of coatings.

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