Enhanced anticorrosion and antibacterial properties of epoxy coatings with silane coupling agent-modified graphene
Abstract
Material corrosion represents a significant scientific and engineering challenge. Microorganisms on material surfaces accelerate corrosion. Due to the excellent properties of graphene, bifunctional anticorrosion and antibacterial coatings were developed by incorporating graphene into epoxy resin. To mitigate the detrimental effects of agglomeration on coating performance, graphene oxide (GO) was prepared, and a silane coupling agent was used to modify the surface of GO to enhance its stability and dispersibility within the coating matrix. The properties of graphene were analyzed before and after surface modification by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Transmission electron microscope (TEM). Epoxy/modified-GO (0.1 wt%) coating revealed the highest corrosion resistance of 9.696 × 107 Ω cm2 after 144 h immersion in 3.5% NaCl solution measured by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique. Higher protection against bacteria was observed for epoxy/modified-GO (0.1 wt%) as the most efficient antibacterial composite coating. These results indicated that the coatings with modified graphene exhibited superior corrosion resistance and effectively inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus.
© 2026 Xin Yue, Jihui Wang, published by Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.