Noncovalent exfoliation of graphene and its multifunctional composite coating with enhanced anticorrosion and tribological performance

Abstract

Impermeable and rigid graphene nanosheet is regarded as the thinnest corrosion protection layer and superior solid lubricant up to now, and has been largely reported and used for metal anticorrosion and wear reduction in both academic and industrial field. Here, we obtain few-layers graphene functionalized by poly (2-aminothiazole) (PAT) with free basal plane defects in organic solvent on the basis of π−π interaction between them. The barrier performance of composite coating with PAT-G hybrids is evaluated by water uptake and electrochemical measurement in 3.5 wt % NaCl solution compared to neat epoxy coating and PAT-based coating. The wear reduction of PAT-functionalized graphene-based coating is investigated via friction test. Composite coating with PAT-G hybrids exhibited excellent anticorrosion performance and wear reduction thanks to the multifunctional graphene and passive effect of PAT. The optimized specimen PAT-G0.5% shows a superior barrier property during 80 days' immersion and exhibits the lowest wear rate, which is reduced by 69.48% relative to neat epoxy.