Eco-friendly design of α-zirconium phosphate modified by phytic acid for reinforcing the corrosion resistance of waterborne epoxy coating

Owing to the increasingly stringent environmental regulations, eco-friendly waterborne epoxy (WEP) coating currently gets much attention as an alternative choice of traditional coating. But the intrinsic problems of WEP, including poor barrier property and lack of long-term anticorrosion performance, was a limitation for its application. Herein, α-zirconium phosphate (α-ZrP) was prepared and exfoliated under mild condition. Then α-ZrP after exfoliation was functionalized by eco-friendly phytic acid (PA) molecular and a novel nano-filler (PZ) was obtained. The test results of the XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM and XPS indicated that the preparation of nano-materials was successful. Through the EIS test, the outstanding barrier property of WEP incorporating with PZ was proved. Moreover, the excellent long-term anticorrosion performance of WEP incorporating with PZ was also proved by the salt spray test.