APTES Modification of Molybdenum Disulfide to Improve the Corrosion Resistance of Waterborne Epoxy Coating

MoS2 has been regarded as a promising addition for the preparation of epoxy-based coatings with high anticorrosion ability. However, its dispersion and compatibility remain significant challenges. In the present work, an organic thin layer was well coated on lamellar molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) via a simple modification of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The modification of hydrolyzing APTES on lamellar MoS2 effectively improved the dispersity of MoS2 in water-borne epoxy (WEP) and successfully enhanced the compatibility and crosslinking density of MoS2 with WEP. The influence of introducing MoS2-APTES into WEP coating on anticorrosion property for N80 steel was tested by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization and salt spray test. The results exhibited that the |Z|0.01Hz value of MoS2-APTES/WEP still reached 3.647 × 107 Ω·cm2 even after the immersion time of 50 days in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution, showing an extraordinary performance of corrosion resistance. The enhanced anticorrosion performance of composite coating could be resulted from the apparently increased dispersibility and compatibility of MoS2 in WEP.