One-Pot Fabrication of an MXene-ZrP@PDA Heterojunction for Enhanced Corrosion/Wear Resistance of Waterborne Epoxy Coatings

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have a wide range of applications in the field of corrosion protection and wear resistance. The use of MXene (Ti3C2Tx) in epoxy coatings is limited due to its natural restacking tendency. Herein, MXene-ZrP@PDA was obtained through the polydopamine (PDA) functionalization of a heterojunction composed of MXene and exfoliated α-zirconium phosphate (α-ZrP). MXene-ZrP@PDA (MZP) was incorporated into a waterborne epoxy (WEP) coating to prepare an MZP/WEP composite coating. The results show that the corrosion rate of MZP/WEP (1.70 × 10–4 mpy) is one order of magnitude lower than that of blank WEP (1.28 × 10–3 mpy). Moreover, the average coefficient of friction (COF) of the MZP/WEP composite coating decreased by 82.06% compared with that of the blank WEP coating. The results reveal that the addition of MXene-ZrP@PDA can significantly improve the anticorrosion/antiwear properties of WEP. Our results provide new ideas for the application of MXene/ZrP in the field of metal protection.