Wear and corrosion resistance of fluorocarbon/epoxy blended coatings nanofilled by mechanically peeled few-layer fluorinated graphene
Shaofeng Zhou, Ying Zhang, Jialin Chen, Jin Yan, Jin Huang, Qiaoxin Zhang, Guizhe Zhao, Yaqing Liu
Abstract
In order to prepare novel fluorocarbon resin coatings with outstanding wear and corrosion resistance, this manuscript prepared few-layer fluorinated graphene (FG) nanosheets through a simple mechanical exfoliation method, and nanofilled them into the fluorocarbon resin/epoxy resin (FEVE/EP) blended matrix to prepare FG-FEVE/EP nanocomposite coating. The exfoliated FG was 4–7 layers and contained active O–H and C=C functional groups in addition to abundance of C–F bonds that were identical to those of FEVE. The as-prepared FG layers were freely stacked and possessed low orientation, and exhibited good dispersion and interfacial compatibility in the FEVE/EP matrix. The FG-FEVE/EP nanocomposite coating filled with 0.1 wt% FG (0.1% FG-FEVE/EP) achieved the hardness of 3H and adhesion strength of 7.7 MPa. Compared with pure FEVE/EP coating, the 0.1% FG-FEVE/EP reduced the friction coefficient by 10.6% and 30.7% and the wear rate by 55.1% and 56.1% under dry friction and simulated seawater friction conditions, respectively. In addition, the EIS testing and fitting data yielded that the impedance modulus of the 0.1% FG-FEVE/EP was two orders of magnitude higher than that of the FEVE/EP coating after 15 days of immersion in NaCl solution, and the coating resistance (Rc) still reached 1.6 × 109 Ω cm2, showing excellent corrosion resistance. The excellent wear and corrosion resistance of the FG-FEVE/EP was attributed to the fact that the FG prepared by mechanical peeling was uniformly dispersed and interfacially compatible in the FEVE/EP matrix, which contributed to the excellent interlayer lubrication, stress resistance and barrier corrosion protection of FG.