Epoxy coating with in-situ synthesis of polypyrrole functionalized graphene oxide for enhanced anticorrosive performance

Abstract This work introduced an in-situ polymerization method to synthesize nanoscale additive for waterborne epoxy (WEP) coatings. The polypyrrole functionalized graphene oxide (GO-PPy) was synthesized via in-situ process to grow polypyrrole (PPy) film on graphene oxide (GO) surface. The structures and morphologies of the synthesized nanocomposites were characterized by FI-TR, XRD, Raman and FESEM techniques. Incorporation of two mass ratios of GO-PPy nanocomposite into the WEP coating had an obvious improvement in corrosion protection performance of the coating. Among the nanocomposite coatings, GP0.05% coating showed the best impermeable and corrosion protection performance compared to other coatings. Electrochemical impedance measurement (EIS) results showed that GP0.05% coating significantly exhibited the impermeable properties and corrosion protection performance. The protective mechanism of GO-PPy nanocomposites was attributed to passivation effect of conductive PPy and impermeable property of graphene oxide sheets. This work might provide a new candidate coating for metal protection through a facile, environmentally friendly method.