Effects of functionalized CNTs in improving the dielectric, corrosion protection, and mechanical properties of epoxy nanocomposites for automotive/aircraft components

ABSTRACT

Excellent mechanical, thermal, electrical, electrochemical, and optical properties can be found in carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The anticorrosive and mechanical properties of CNTs in epoxy resin (EP) coatings have been improved by the integration of zirconium disulfide (ZrS₂) and 2-amino−5-(4-methoxyphenyl)−1, 3, 4-thiadiazole (AMPT) for surface modification based on CNTs. The structural, morphological, and dielectric behaviors of the films were characterized for the different formulations of coatings such as EP, EP/CNTs, EP-AMPT/CNTs, EP-CNTs/ZrS_2, and EP-AMPT/CNTs-ZrS₂ by means of SEM/EDX, TEM, TGA/XRD, XPS, XRD, and contact angle (CA) measurement. As a result, with the addition of only 0.3% AMPT/CNTs-ZrS₂, the dielectric constant of EP was increased by 87-fold at 1 Hz. The electrochemical techniques and mechanical testing confirmed that AMPT/CNTs-ZrS₂ composite exhibit enhanced anticorrosive and mechanical performance of the EP coating. Superior hydrophobic property of EP-AMPT/CNTs-ZrS₂ is confirmed by its WCA of 161º. Furthermore, the resistance of the EP-AMPT/CNTs-ZrS₂ was found to be much higher (20.870 MΩ.cm²)] than that of the pure EP (0.112 MΩ.cm²) and the microhardness and tensile strength of EP-AMPT/CNTs-ZrS₂ were increased sharply. Therefore, the newly developed EP-AMPT/CNTs-ZrS₂ nanocomposite could act as the vital material for coating AA8014 aluminum alloy used in aerospace applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Cnts
• Corrosion
• dielectric constant
• Functional nanomaterials
• mechanical properties
• nanocomposite coatings

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/25740881.2023.2222790

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joseph Raj Xavier

Prof. Dr. Joseph Raj Xavier is a Professor in Chemistry at SIMATS (DEEMED) University Chennai. He received his BSc degree in Chemistry from Madurai Kamaraj University Subsequently, he completed his M.Sc degree in Chemistry from University of Madras and PhD (2011) in Electrochemistry from Anna University, Chennai. He was a postdoctoral fellow at National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan (2011-2014). His interdisciplinary research areas include development of functional nanomaterials, polymer nanocomposites for coating as well as energy storage system. He was listed as the top 2% Scientists Worldwide for the years 2021 and 2022-A survey by Stanford University and Elsevier.