Study on the corrosion behavior of polymeric nanocomposite coatings containing halloysite nanotubes loaded with multicomponent inhibitor

Abstract

In the present study, the halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were loaded with a multicomponent inhibitor (LHNT) comprising mainly benzotriazole (BTA), sodium benzoate (SB), and lauric acid (LA) via the vacuum cycling method. The successful loading of the BTA + LA + SB inhibitor has been confirmed by the TGA, FTIR, and BET analyses. The TGA analysis has determined ∼ 14% loading of the BTA + LA + SB into the HNTs. Moreover, UV–vis analysis shows that the time and pH-dependent have incremental release of the multicomponent inhibitor in various studied media. The composite coatings (LHNT COAT) were developed by reinforcing the 3 wt% of LHNTs into the epoxy matrix. The corrosion protection of the developed LHNT COAT was enhanced by 99.6% and 98.88% compared to the blank epoxy and unloaded HNT coatings, respectively. This improvement in the corrosion behavior can be attributed to the active release of the multicomponent inhibitor, as was also demonstrated by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopic (EIS) test. It is further predicted that the improved corrosion inhibition efficiency of LHNT COAT may be due to the formation of some components produced from the reaction of the inhibitor components or from the inhibitor reaction with the corrosive medium. The high corrosion resistance of LHNT COAT makes it attuned to several industrial applications.

Keywords

• HNTs
• Inhibitor
• Corrosion
• Self-healing
• Smart coatings
• EIS