Corrosion-protection properties of water-borne paint coatings as studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and gravimetry

Water-borne paint coatings while used outdoors, show good protective behaviour on metals, even though they can take up and release much moisture. As experience shows for physically drying paint coatings, the changing wet-and-dry environment improve their corrosion protection properties. To find out the reasons, eight model coatings – built up from various combinations of layers made of the physically drying styrene-acrylate, and the oxidatively drying alkyd-acrylate based paints – were tested on metal substrate by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; water uptake/release kinetics was followed by gravimetry on self-standing films made of the above resins. The results of experiments simulating the weathering effects (wet–dry cycling and heating) with the physically drying paint coatings lead us to the conclusions that: (i) water uptake and release removes the water-soluble components from the film and thereby contributes to the good or improving corrosion protection feature, and explains the observation that these coatings perform satisfactorily outdoors and (ii) water release is always much faster than the uptake which helps to keep the interior of the coating dry protecting the metal surface against moisture.