Carbon-Based Nanoparticle-Filled Protective Coatings for Enhanced Damage Tolerance and Corrosion Resistance of Structural Weldment

Abstract

Welded joints and surrounded material discontinuity zones in metallic infrastructures are highly vulnerable to severe corrosion-induced damage, which significantly shortens the service life and leads to enormous economic loss. Despite great efforts in protective coatings used for corrosion control, lack of sufficient damage tolerance and corrosion resistance of these existing coatings makes weldments the most common contribution to premature malfunction and even structural failure. Nanomodified composites showed great potentials toward high-performance protective coatings for metallic substrates. Therefore, this study investigated the performance of welded joints that are protected by nanocomposite coatings. Carbon-based nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and fullerene-C60 were selected as one-, two-, and zero-dimensional materials. Results revealed that the nanocomposite coatings had provided excellent protection properties for weld joints. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results suggested that the addition of graphene and fullerene-C60 led to enhance anticorrosion performance, while significant improvement in abrasion resistance and mechanical properties were observed in the nanocomposite reinforced by carbon nanotube and fullerene-C60. Viscosity and particle size distribution tests were utilized to study the interaction between nanoparticles and epoxy resin.