Experimental and numerical study on smectic aligned zirconium phosphate decorated graphene oxide hybrids effects over waterborne epoxy multi-functional properties enhancement
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Metal corrosion, low mechanical and thermal properties of polymers are inflicting harmful on the economy of chemical industries, a variety of polymer reinforcement techniques have been developed for enhancing the corrosion confrontation, mechanical and thermal properties of polymers [1], [2]. The efficient method to resist corrosion was the screen coating method [3]. Widespread investigations have been implemented to enhance the corrosion resistivity of metals [4], [5], [6]. One of the alleviation trials was the foreword of corrosion inhibitors and has attained an excellent outcome. However, this technique will discharge several volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which was the main reason for spoiling our environment through pollution. Another way was to utilize fluorocarbon-based resins to enhance corrosion resistance [7], but the implementation of this technique in the industry is too expensive. Also, the coated surfaces were roofed with several micro-pores, which cannot efficiently resist the corrosive medium [8]; particularly, the substrates were coated by waterborne epoxy (WEP) resins.
WEP resins were broadly used as coatings, composite matrix, and adhesives [9], [10], due to their outstanding adhesion, excellent corrosion resistance, and good chemical stability. However, during the curing process, WEP resins would create a proliferation of micro-pores, which creates a path for the rapid diffusion of exterior corrosive media to the secluded substrate. This drawback of WEP gravely confines the utilization of WEP resins in the manufacturing industries [11]. So far, the effective technique to overcome this problem is the introduction of nano-fillers in coatings, to successfully impede the formation of micro-pores during the coating process [12]. The literature reports point out that WEP composites have superior corrosion fighting capacity, particularly those containing lamellar micro-nano fillers [13], [14].
Based on literature reports, graphene-based resources counting, graphene oxide (GO) [15], GO bedecked by nanoparticles [16], [17], chemically modified GO [18], [19], and graphene nanosheets [20], [21], [22], [23] are outstanding prospects for increasing the corrosion resistance and mechanical and thermal properties of polymer composites. Better performances of GO-based polymer nanocomposite coatings can be achieved due to the high surface area, two-dimensional geometry, impermeability against corrosive agents, excellent mechanical and thermal properties, and better interaction between GO and polymer matrix system [24], [25]. Though GO has a declared trend to create harsh agglomeration at comparatively high loading, and its expected quality of the properties fails to be entirely attained in a polymer system [26], [27]. Indisputably, with the point of accomplishing the productive application of GO in the polymer matrix, the significant consequence should be determined enhancing exfoliation of sheet-filler and dispersion in the matrix system. In this case, several treating methods, e.g., decorating with nanoparticles, organic modification, surface grafting, and in situ polymerization, have been aimed to accomplish the goal [28], [29].
Particularly, nanoparticles bedecked on the surface of the GO have highly capable of separating sheets, which increases the GO layer spacing. Moreover, there are several nanoparticles had been utilized for the decoration of GO, such as zinc oxide [28], titanium oxide [25], silica [12], and aluminum oxide [17]. However, comparatively few works had been reported on fabricating Zirconium phosphate decorated graphene oxide (ZrP@GO) hybrid with the polymer to investigate the corrosive resistance properties of polymer composite coatings [30]. Particularly, structured arrangement of Zirconium phosphate (ZrP), as one of the better protective materials to engage in polymeric coatings [31], which exposed notable wear resistance, chemical resistance, and corrosion resistance, fracture toughness, strength, and high hardness, which are rendering a good chance for a broader industrial application [32], [33], [34]. Here ZrP not only improves the corrosive property of the polymer matrix but also is capable of precluding the aggregation process of GO leading to a better dispersion.
In the present work, in order to achieve better dispersion and enhance corrosive resistance property of WEP resin, a novel ZrP@GO hybrid was ground worked via a single step in-situ method, and the as-prepared ZrP@GO nanocomposites were incorporated into the WEP system. The thermal and mechanical properties of WEP/ZrP@GO nanocomposites were investigated. Besides, anticorrosive properties of the nanocomposites were studied by the aid of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and salt spray analysis. Further, the effect of the incorporation of ZrP@GO on the flame retardancy of the WEP system was also discussed.
Section snippets
Materials
The graphite fine particles were purchased from Aladdin Industrial Co. Ltd (China). Aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution (30%), concentrated sulfuric acid (98%), hydrochloric acid (37%), potassium permanganate and potassium nitrate were obtained from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co. Ltd (Shanghai, China). Zirconium oxychloride octahydrate and phosphoric acid (85%) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Company. Hanzhong coating Co supplied the waterborne epoxy resin E51 and its curing agent. All other
Characterization of ZrP@GO hybrids
Scheme S1 representing the one step synthesizes the process of zirconium phosphate decorated graphene oxide (ZrP@GO) hybrids. Initially, the graphene oxide (GO) was prepared via the oxidation of graphite fine powder by the assist of strong oxidizing agent potassium permanganate in the presence of potassium nitrate and concentrated HCl. On the other side, the zirconium phosphate (ZrP) was coated by the aid of zirconium oxychloride and phosphoric acid reaction mixture followed by reflux under
Dispersion study
The dispersion study analysis of neat WEP, WEP/GO, WEP/ZrP, and WEP/ZrP@GO nanocomposites were performed with the assist of XRD and FESEM. The XRD instrument was utilized to investigate as-prepared ZrP, GO, and ZrP@GO hybrids exfoliation and dispersion within the WEP system after curing, and the analysis was performed from the 2θ values of 5° to 75° diffraction. Fig. 5B demonstrates the resulted in XRD patterns of the dispersion study analysis of as-prepared WEP nanocomposites. In the case of
The numerical analysis
Due to the availability of high-speed computers and storage data, computational mechanics is highly used nowadays. Numerical simulation will drastically reduce the number of experimental trials which al so reduce the time of finding the possible solution and cost. In this research work, finite element model has been developed using the commercial Abaqus finite element package to predict the tensile behavior. Tensile sample was created as per the ISO standard and structure analysis has been run
Conclusions
The smectic aligned zirconium phosphate decorated graphene oxide hybrid was geared up via a one-step in-situ method, and the successful decoration and quality of the as-prepared ZrP@GO hybrids were scrutinized by XRD, XPS, TGA, FT-IR, Raman, TEM, AFM, and FESEM analysis. The as-synthesized hybrids were incorporated with the WEP matrix system and the effects on the thermal and mechanical properties were investigated. Our research study outcome exposes that the ZrP@GO hybrids can be able to
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was obtained a financial support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2021R1A2C2006888),
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