Highly dispersed nanometer BiVO4 on attapulgite as a potential hybrid inhibitor pigment in epoxy coatings

Highly dispersed nanometer BiVO4 on attapulgite (ATP) as hybrid inhibitor pigment was prepared using chemical bath deposition. Microscopy analysis shows that nanometer BiVO4 particles uniformly grow on attapulgite. The immersion and polarization tests show that ATP-BiVO4 inhibits corrosion of aluminium alloy 2024-T3. The EIS results indicate that the coating resistance of ATP-BiVO4 containing epoxy coating is approximately two orders of magnitude higher than that of the epoxy coating containing only attapulgite. The enhanced corrosion protection ability of ATP-BiVO4 containing epoxy coating can be ascribed to the combination of the barrier effect of ATP-BiVO4 and the inhibition effect of the released vanadate at the coating/substrate interface. The deposition of BiVO4 with inhibition ability on fillers provides a new way to develop hybrid inhibitor pigment.