Remarkable improvement of corrosion resistance of silane composite coating with Ti3C2Tx MXene on copper

A single protective coating on metal is difficult to meet the requirement of anti-corrosion under an aggressive environment. Herein, a two dimensional layer structure of Ti3C2Tx with mercaptosilane composite coating is designed to protect copper from corrosion. The composite coating takes advantage of the physical barrier of Ti3C2Tx along with improving the adhesion strength of Ti3C2Tx/silane coating with substrate, thereby exhibiting excellent corrosion resistance. Anti-corrosion properties are characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization. Impedance at 10−2 Hz of the composite coating increases by 1.8 orders of magnitude and the current density decreases by ∼5 fold compared to the neat silane coating. Besides, the composite coating shows a high impedance modulus after immersion test for 16 days and keeps a high protection efficiency of 98.55% after immersion test for 30 days. The corrosion resistance mechanism is that the Ti3C2Tx nanosheet can avoid the microviods and extend the diffusion path way of the corrosive media. The composite coating is prepared by a simple solution-based process without tedious modification for Ti3C2Tx MXene. This work not only highlights the potential application of Ti3C2Tx/silane composite coating as an effective anticorrosion material, but also expands the application of Ti3C2Tx MXene.