Preparation of a polyvinyl chloride superhydrophobic coating with high stability and strong corrosion resistance

Abstract

By endowing polyvinyl chloride with superhydrophobicity, the material quality of the polyvinyl chloride film is enhanced, and its application scope is expanded. Hence, a superhydrophobic polyvinyl chloride coating solution was prepared by doping modified nanoparticles and blending, and then a modified coating was created by spraying it over carbon steel. The coating doped with fluorinated modified SiO₂ particles was further treated with stearic acid modified ZnO to obtain a composite polyvinyl chloride coating with high stability and strong corrosion resistance. By analyzing the elemental composition and surface morphology, more polymerization structures and composite protrusions can be found in the modified coating, demonstrating the stability of the composite structure. Simultaneously, the composite coating was found to show better stability according to the blade scraping paired with tape peeling test, sandpaper wear test, thermogravimetric testing, chemical resistance test, and weather resistance test. By simulating typical saline corrosion environments through an electrochemical workstation and combining the data obtained from Tafel fitting, the composite coating was found to demonstrate the best corrosion resistance, with a corrosion resistance efficiency of 95.8% for carbon steel after long-term exposure to corrosion for 28 days. In addition, the optimized polyvinyl chloride coating also performed exceptionally well in terms of self-cleaning, anti-fouling and bounce performance. This approach also holds tremendous promise for the development of highly stable superhydrophobic structures and strong corrosion resistant metal protection.