Synthesis and surface modification of Zinc oxide nanoparticles to prepare corrosion resistant coatings

Zinc oxide is an active, inorganic material for a number of important applications. Zinc Oxide have wide properties for industrial applications which has been further increased by making the use of it in nanoscale size that fit in the corrosion resistant coatings. Nanoparticles have unique properties such as large surface area and nanoscale size due to which it possess various application in coatings and paints. Coating is a covering which when applied to the surface forms a layer and act as a protective barrier to the surface based on the property of the coating. Nanocomposite coatings are comparatively low cost and have more applications like dealing with the corrosion and radiation resistivity. Incorporation of nanoparticles in coating enhance its property by reducing the void and expected to induce barrier property for corrosion.

For this purpose, zinc oxide nanoparticles were synthesized using wet chemical method. The effect of reactants (base) used in ZnO synthesis was studied from pH 9 to 11 and was characterized using XRD, FT-IR, SEM-EDX, etc. To increase the hydrophobicity and to make them suitable to disperse in polymeric binder, synthesized ZnO nanoparticles, have been surface modified with different silanes such as aminopropyl triethoxy silane (APTES), hexadecyl trimethoxy silane (HDTMS) and vinyltriethoxy silane (VTES). Surface modification was examined by FTIR, TGA, SEM-EDX and Contact angle analysis and VTES was found suitable for surface modification. Surface modified ZnO nanoparticles have been dispersed in polymeric binder (liquid EPDM) with other additives to form coating formulations. These coating formulations were applied on MS panels and it was observed that developed coating formulations have good mechanical and physical properties and high corrosion resistance.