Preparation and anticorrosion performance of graphene composited waterborne coatings

Abstract

Waterborne coatings are safe and environmentally friendly and widely used in automobile, construction and other fields. The low hardness of films formed by water-based anticorrosion coatings and their poor anticorrosion effect can be resulted from the addition of hydrophilic substances, which make it easy for water penetration. In this experiment, glycidyl methacrylate (GMA), butyl acrylate (BA), methyl methacrylate (MMA), and acrylic acid (AA) were used as the polymerization monomers to enhance the hardness, adhesion, and film-forming properties of the coatings by introducing the epoxy bond of GMA in the synthesis. The appropriate formula ratios for the waterborne coatings were determined by conditioning the content of wetting agent, thickener, levelling agent, defoamer, and modified acrylic-based resin. Based on this formula, suitable additive ratios of graphene were determined by condition experiments. When the addition ratio of graphene was 0.6wt% - 0.8wt%, the obtained coatings exhibited satisfactory hardness, film-forming properties, strong adhesion and anticorrosive properties. The results of salt spray tests and potentiodynamic polarization experiments verified that graphene in a certain proportion can effectively block the penetration of water, so that the coating presented excellent properties.