The improvement of corrosion resistance of fluoropolymer coatings by SiO2/poly(styrene-co-butyl acrylate) nanocomposite particles

The effects of nano-silica particles on the anticorrosion properties of fluoropolymer coatings on mild steel have been investigated in this paper. In order to enhance the dispersibility of nano-silica in fluoropolymer coatings, we treated the surface of nano-silica with poly(styrene-co-butyl acrylate) (P(St-BA)). The surface grafting of P(St-BA) on the nanoparticles were detected using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermo gravimetric analyzer (TGA), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The surface of nanocomposite coatings and the coating-substrates bond texture were detected by FE-SEM. We also used energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to analyze whether the nanocomposite particles were added into the fluoropolymer coatings. In addition, the influences of various nanoparticles on the corrosion resistance of fluoropolymer-coated steel were investigated by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results shown that nanocomposite particles can be dispersed better in fluoropolymer coatings, and the electrochemical results clearly shown the improvement of the protective properties of the nanocomposite coatings when 4 wt.% SiO2/P(St-BA) was added to the fluoropolymer coatings.