Study of Self-Cleaning and Anticorrosion Superhydrophobic Coating on Cement Mortar Using Milled Coral Waste Powder

Abstract

To reduce and reuse waste, the use of coral waste has attracted more and more attention from researchers. In this study, a method of preparing environmentally friendly superhydrophobic coating with coral waste and stearic acid was proposed. In order to make the coral waste superhydrophobic, it was ground to form micrometer-scale to nanometer-scale powder. The reduction of surface energy depended on the effect of stearic acid. The superhydrophobic powder was sprayed on uncured cement mortar in order to form a superhydrophobic coating. The results of a surface wettability test demonstrated that the prepared coating had good superhydrophobicity. The water contact angle was 152.6°, and the water sliding angle was 1.2°. The self-cleaning test showed that the coating had good self-cleaning properties. Electrochemical tests showed that the superhydrophobic coating improved the corrosion resistance of cement mortar. The superhydrophobic coating proposed in this study is expected to be used in marine concrete and engineering construction far from mainland islands.