Preparing superhydrophobic nanocomposite coating with SiO₂ nanoparticles on magnesium alloy

ABSTRACT

Magnesium (Mg) alloys attract a lot of attention owing to their superior properties, while the poor corrosion resistance significantly restricts their extensive applications in practice. The development of a superhydrophobic coating can effectively decrease the contact area between corrosive solutions and the Mg substrate, consequently providing corrosion protection. Herein, a facile approach was proposed, with low cost and no damage to the environment. A nanocomposite coating composed of polyvinylidene fluoride and chemically modified SiO₂ nanoparticles was successfully constructed on the Mg alloy by a spraying method. The nanocomposite coating presented irregular structures with accumulated SiO₂ nanoparticles, entrapped a lot of air pockets. The water contact angle was up to 151.8°. The corrosion current density was reduced by one order of magnitude compared to that of the bare substrate. Therefore, the nanocomposite coating can provide good corrosion protection for the Mg substrate, accelerating the extensive applications of Mg alloys.

KEYWORDS:

• Superhydrophobic
• magnesium alloy
• nanocomposite coating
• corrosion protection
• facile preparation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission [KJZD-K201900503], Achievement Transfer Program of Institutions of Higher Education in Chongqing [No. KJZH17112], the National Key Research and Development Program of China [No. 2016YFB0301100], Chongqing Postdoctoral Science Foundation [cstc2020jcyj-bshX0015], and National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 52001036].