Yttrium doped ZnO nanofillers reinforced epoxy coating for anticorrosion application

In the present study, synthesized pure and Yttrium (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mM) doped Zinc Oxide (YZO) nanoparticles by chemical precipitation method. X-ray diffractogram asserts the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO nanoparticles. The average crystallite size was found to be 22–17 nm. The hexagonal shape, surface morphology, particle size and elemental composition of the samples were analyzed by FESEM, HRTEM and EDAX. The anticorrosive property of nanoscopic size (17 nm) YZO/epoxy nanocomposite was studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique in both neutral and acidic media. Epoxy/YZO nanocomposites were prepared using different loadings (0.05, 0.10 and 0.15 wt%) of yttrium doped ZnO nanoparticles. The results obtained confirm that 0.10 wt% is the optimum concentration to get superior anticorrosion activity Epoxy/YZO nanocomposites were applied on mild steel substrates. The acquisition of yttrium doped ZnO nanofillers into the plain epoxy coating materially increased the charge transfer resistance Rct by 3.5 times in oxalic acid solution as against epoxy/ZnO coating. This encapsulates that the YZO nanoparticles are a potential anti-corrosive filler in coat on mild steel.