Sol–gel based layer-by-layer deposits of lanthanum cerium molybdate nanocontainers and their anticorrosive attributes

Abstract

The present study focuses on the synthesis of novel lanthanum cerium molybdate (LCM) nanoparticles by sol–gel synthesis method and their use in the development of nanocontainers in an anticorrosive coating application. The obtained nanoparticles were used as core material with two different polyelectrolytic shells comprising of polypyrrole (PPY) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) or polyethyleneimine (PEI) and polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) involving the entrapment of benzotriazole (BTA) as the corrosion inhibitor using layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition method. At each step of this nanocontainer synthesis, the thickness of the layers, surface charges and the presence of the functional groups were determined by particle size, zeta potential and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, respectively. The X-ray diffractograms (XRD) indicated the change in the crystallinity of the nanoparticles and nanocontainers while thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed the thermal degradation behavior of the nanocontainers. The morphological studies conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) exhibited the formation of nanocontainers containing nanoparticles in their cores. The release of BTA from the nanocontainers was evaluated at different pH values. The anticorrosive performance of the nanocontainers was examined by incorporation of the nanoparticles and nanocontainers in a commercial epoxy coating system and to be applied on mild steel and magnesium panels by electrochemical corrosion analysis. Tafel plots demonstrated the decrease in the current density with an increase in the loading percentage of nanocontainers in the epoxy system while Bode plots confirmed the significant improvement in the corrosion protection of the mild steel and magnesium by LCM nanoparticles and nanocontainers.