Microwave assisted self-repairable vitrimeric coating for anti-corrosive applications

Abstract

Vitrimeric coatings are revolutionary and most widely emerging materials for metal corrosion inhibition. As harsh environmental conditions damages polymer-derived protective films and results into micro cracks and corroded metal surfaces. In this work, an active microwave responsive vitrimeric epoxy coating embedded with weathering resistant properties is introduced along with systematic comparative study for the effect of ortho and para position of amine in hardening agent. The developed microwave radiation responsive coating system felicitates self-healing due to disulfide exchange mechanism and corrosion inhibition properties in marine environments. Compared to conventional coatings, prepared graphene oxide (GO) incorporated vitrimeric network showed more promising protection against corrosion in offshore applications with 95.4 % protection efficiency and hydrophobicity with 96-degree contact angle. This study covers the self-healing properties, thermal mechanical study, hydrophobicity measurement, and thorough corrosion examination of synthesized material coated on 304 grade SS substrate. The coating reports excellent self-healing efficiency, reliable mechanical strength (storage modulus-129GPa and loss modulus-83GPa), fast stress relaxation and low activation energy (63KJ/mol) for dynamic disulfide exchange reaction, furthermore low corrosion rate of 1.20 × 10−3mm/y was observed for the coating. Thus, demonstrates its importance for self-healable anti-corrosive application for the marine environment.