Enhanced Anti-Corrosion Performance of Carbon Steels via CeO₂@BNNSs/Epoxy Resin Composite Coatings

Due to its excellent physical barrier behavior and high physicochemical stability, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) can improve the anti-corrosion capacity of a favorite protective coating onto metals. However, the poor dispersion of h-BN filler in the formation of polymer composites does not promote its further wide application in the field of corrosion protection. In this work, a new CeO2@BNNSs filler is highly dispersed into aqueous epoxy (EP) to make nice coatings onto steels. As a result, after immersing them into an NaCl solution of 3.5 wt% for 20 days, the as-prepared CeO2@BNNSs/EP composite coatings can keep an impedance modulus (|Z|(f) (= 0.01 Hz)) value of 9.61 x 10(7) omega cm(2), which is larger than those of the blank EP and the EP filled with the h-BN and BNNSs fillers. In addition, compared to the EP, h-BN/EP, and BNNSs/EP coatings, the higher corrosion potential, the properties of larger polarization resistance, and lower corrosion current density for the CeO2@BNNSs/EP coatings indicate CeO2@BNNSs/EP's excellent protective ability to the steel from corrosion. It is believed that this kind of CeO2@BNNSs/EP composite materials and its coatings would be highly promising for application in future advanced anti-corrosion environments and devices.