Improved corrosion resistance based on APTES-grafted reduced sulfonated graphene/waterborne polyurethane coatings

In this work, reduced sulfonated graphene (RSG) containing free amine groups was prepared and modified by 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and reduction by diethanolamine (DEA). In addition, waterborne polyurethane (WPU) composite coatings were prepared by adding RSG as an anticorrosive filler to WPU. From the results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it can be found that sulfonated graphene was modified with APTES and successfully reduced by DEA. The SEM images illustrated that RSG was uniformly doped in the WPU. With increasing RSG content, the hydrophobicity of the RSG/WPU films increased due to the strong covalent interaction between RSG and WPU. Finally, the corrosion resistance of the coating was characterized by polarization curves and salt spray tests.