Chinese Academy of Sciences: Silicone modified graphene enhances epoxy anti-corrosion wear coating research progress

Bisphenol A epoxy resin is the largest yield and widest use of epoxy resin, a thermosolytic resin, with low curing shrinkage, easy molding, strong bonding ability, high mechanical strength and excellent resistance to chemical corrosion, is widely used as a coating, binders and composites, such as resin substates. The three-dimensional pores and defects formed by the curing of epoxy resin will lead to poor denseness of the resin substate, low barrier performance, low shear strength and poor friction wear performance, which further limits its application in the fields of corrosion and wear resistance.
Recently, the Marine Functional Materials Team of Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the corrosion control system engineering team of Beijing University of Science and Technology, under the joint guidance of researchers Wang Liping, Zhao Haichao and professors Li Xiaogang and Zhang Dawei, Ph.D. student Ye Yuwei and others designed a series of experiments to overcome the reunion of graphene (graphene oxide) in solvents and substation resins, and successfully prepared a graphene-reinforced graphene composite coating with excellent corrosion resistanceSilicone/graphene hybridization materials are prepared by the laminated sol-gel reaction. The graphene hybrid material can be evenly dispersed into water-based epoxy resin, and has a certain electrical activity, can induce the formation of passivation film on the metal substrate surface, and co-inhibit corrosion (Carbon, 2019, 142, 164-176).
At the same time, the researchers used chemical modification to branch polyhedes of polyoxysilane (POSS) on the surface of graphene oxide (GO), preparing ultra-hydrophobic POSS-GO nanochips and achieving excellent and stable dispersion in many organic solvents such as waterless ethanol, tethydrofuran, xylene, etc. The researchers added the prepared POSS-GO to epoxy resins to explore their corrosion protection and frictional behavior in simulated seawater. The study found that the hardness, binding strength and toughness of epoxy coating were improved to varying degrees after POSS-GO reinforcement, and after 150 days of immersion in simulated seawater, the epoxy composite coating with 0.5wt%POSS-GO was added to show the highest impedance mode and lowest water absorption rate, while the 0.5wt%POSS-GO reinforced epoxy composite coating showed the lowest friction coefficient and wear rate in simulated sea water. The findings were published in November 2018 in the journal Corrosion Science.
the above-mentioned research work has been supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Frontier Scientific Research Program (QYZDY-SSW-JSC009), the Leading Special Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA13040601) and the Zhejiang Graphene Major Science and Technology Project (2015C01006).Figure 1 (a) TEM diagram and (b) overall distribution of raw graphene in substation resin, (c) TEM diagram and (d) overall distribution of modified graphene in substation resin, (e) oxygen permeability of each coating, (f) water absorption rate of each coating
Figure 2 (a-b) pure epoxy coating, (c- d) Epoxy composite coating with 0.5wt% graphene oxide, epoxy composite coating with 0.5wt% silicone modified graphene, epoxy composite coating with 1wt% silicone modified graphene
(Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering)