Corrosion behavior and mechanical properties of cured epoxy_ glass flake nanocomposite coatings on galvanized steel

In this paper, the influence of different loading (w/w%) of nano glass flake on the mechanical properties and corrosion protection of an cured epoxy nanocomposite coating was investigated. Nanoglass flakes (GF) were incorporated into epoxy resin by mechanical agitation and sonication process. Meanwhile, the effect of sonication in the dispersion process and in the characteristics of resultant nanocomposite was studied by UV-vis analyzer. To achieve fully dispersed structures of nano glass flake-epoxy, high shear mixing and high-intensity ultrasound during the synthesis of nano glass flake-epoxy nanocomposites were applied. Optical microscopy was used to analyze the optical homogeneity of dispersions. To investigate anticorrosive properties of nanocomposite organic coatings, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) have been employed. Results showed that the corrosion resistance of nanocomposite coatings was improved as the amounts GF were increased to 3 wt%. By using the corrosion resistance behavior, mechanism of diffusion of corrosive species into these nanocomposite coatings was explained.