The effect of surface modification on the cathodic disbondment rate of epoxy and alkyd coatings

Surface modification of carbon steel substrates using appropriate functionalised silanes was carried out to investigate their effect on the dry and wet adhesion strength, and the cathodic disbondment rate, of coating binders based on epoxy and alkyd chemistries. Results show that pre-treatment of the steel substrate with 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy silane (3-GPS) enhanced the dry and wet adhesion of an epoxy-based coating. Similarly, pre-treatment with 3-aminopropyltriethoxy silane (3-APS) enhanced the dry and wet adhesion of alkyd-based systems. However, although pre-treatment with 3-GPS reduced the cathodic disbondment rate for epoxy by a factor of 3, no effect on the disbondment rate for alkyd-based binders on substrates pre-treated with 3-APS was found. This strongly suggests that cathodic disbondment of epoxy proceeds by disruption of interfacial bonds (i.e. at the binder/substrate interface) but that disbondment of alkyds proceeds by direct degradation of the binder and that the interface plays little part in the process.