Curing of Functionalized Superhydrophobic Inorganic/Epoxy Nanocomposite and Application as Coatings for Steel

Superhydrophobic epoxy nanocomposites coatings with superior mechanical and adhesion strength are targeted to increase epoxy coating performance and to protect steel corrosion in aggressive environment. The present work prepared hydrophobic organic modified inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) based on magnetite, titanium dioxide and silver capped with epoxide oleic, linoleic and linolenic fatty acids. Their chemical structures, thermal stability, crystalline lattice structure, morphology and particles sizes distribution were determined using different tools. The curing exothermic reactions and thermal mechanical properties of the cured commercial epoxy with polyamine hardener were evaluated in the presence of the modified NPs to investigate their effect on the curing mechanism and crosslinking densities of the cured epoxy networks. The adhesion strength, abrasion resistance, seawater contact angles and seawater salt spray resistances of the cured epoxy coatings were evaluated on the steel surfaces. The obtained results confirm that the increasing weight contents of the modified NPs embedded into epoxy networks via chemical linking affect the adhesion, superhydrophobicity and anticorrosion performances of the cured epoxy coatings on the steel surfaces.