Comparative study on the corrosion and mechanical properties of nano-composite coatings incorporated with TiO2 nano-particles, TiO2 nano-tubes, and ZnO nano-flowers

TiO2 nano-particles (NP-TiO2), TiO2 nano-tubes (NT-TiO2) and novel nano-composite TiO2 nano-tubes and ZnO nano-flowers (NT-TiO2 + NF-ZnO) were prepared by sol-gel and modified hydrothermal methods, respectively. These pigments were characterized by XRD, HRTEM, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. The effects of these pigments on the mechanical and anticorrosion performance of alkyd coating were evaluated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), water permeability, elastic modulus and hardness measurements. EIS measurements showed that the alkyd resin resistance and charge transfer resistance increased via the incorporation of nano-pigments into neat coatings. The order of anticorrosion performance of the three nano-pigments was as follows: NT-TiO2 + NF-ZnO ˃ NT-TiO2 ˃ NP-TiO2.