Salt solution immersion tests were performed to assess the corrosion resistances of scratched coatings.
Figure 6 shows photographs of scratched epoxy coatings with different microcapsule contents after various immersion periods. It can be seen that with the extension of immersion time, the corrosion phenomena in the scratched areas of coating samples with different microcapsule contents were different. First, the corrosion resistance of a pure epoxy resin coating without microcapsules was studied, as shown in
Figure 6 (a). Rust appeared on this coating sample on the third day of immersion, and the corrosion phenomenon was intensified on the 15th and 30th days.
Figure 6 (b) shows photographs of the coating sample with 1 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules. No corrosion phenomenon of the coating sample was evident on the third day of immersion, but the degree of corrosion gradually increased after the 15th day of immersion, indicating that the added 1 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules played a certain anti-corrosion role in the initial stages, but that the anti-corrosion effect gradually weakened with the extension of immersion time. The coating samples incorporating 5 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules showed excellent corrosion resistance throughout the immersion period, as shown in
Figure 6 (c). Thus, 5 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules imparted the coating with long-term and effective corrosion resistance. The coating sample with 10 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules showed a certain anti-corrosion effect on the surface of carbon steel in the early stage of immersion. At the later stage of immersion, however, corrosion was rapidly aggravated. We envisage that excessive addition of microcapsules destroys the integrity of the coating matrix and weakens the interface bonding performance. Therefore, the corrosion medium can more easily penetrate the whole coating and reach the surface of the steel substrate, thereby producing more serious corrosion. In summary, the salt solution immersion test results showed that the self-healing coating with 5 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules had the best repair performance and hence the beat corrosion protection performance for low-carbon steel.
Figure 7 (a
1) shows the Bode plot for a pure epoxy scratched coating. It can be seen that the impedance value of the coating at a frequency of 0.01 Hz was very low on the third day of corrosion (6366.8 Ω cm
2). With the increase of immersion time, the corrosive medium gradually penetrated into the scratches in the coating, resulting in a marked decrease in the impedance modulus of the blank coating. After 30 days of immersion, the impedance modulus at 0.01 Hz decreased to 4436.8 Ω cm
2.
Figure 7 (b
1) shows the Bode plot for the coating containing 1 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules. The impedance moduli after immersion for 3, 15, and 30 days at 0.01 Hz were 7050.5, 7314.4, and 7302.3 Ω cm
2, respectively. The overall impedance modulus was slightly higher than that of the pure epoxy coating, and there was no large fluctuation over the corrosion period. This was mainly due to the small amount of BTA inhibiting the corrosion of the coating, but the effect was not obvious.
Figure 7 (c
1) shows the Bode plot for the epoxy coating containing 5 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules. The impedance modulus at 0.01 Hz was higher than in the other cases, and continued to increase with increasing number of immersion days, rising from 18992 Ω cm
2 on day 3 to 19223 Ω cm
2 on 30 days. This corroborates that the epoxy coating with 5wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules had the best anti-corrosion effect, and that the BTA released from the nanocontainers on demand provides lasting protection for the scratched area. The amount of BTA released was sufficient to provide good corrosion resistance during the immersion period. This was mainly because, with the gradual deepening of the corrosion channels in the coating, the environment of the corrosion micro-area becomes acidic. At this time, the microcapsules incorporated in the coating showed pH responsiveness [
15,
38], and the BTA was released to carry out its corrosion inhibition role [
40,
41,
42]. Figure7 (d
1) shows the Bode plot for corrosion of the epoxy coating containing 10 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules. It can be seen that the overall impedance modulus at 0.01 Hz was not as high as that of the epoxy coating with 5 wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules, but was higher than those of the other three coatings. Excessive addition may destroy the integrity of the coating and expose the steel substrate [
8], further showing that the epoxy resin coating with 5wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules had the best anti-corrosion effect. Nyquist plots showed similar variations as the Bode plots. For the pure epoxy coating, as shown in Figure7 (a
2), with the extension of immersion time, the capacitance arc of steel in salt solution showed a decreasing trend. For the coatings incorporating microcapsules, as shown in Figure7 (b
2-d
2), with the extension of immersion time, the capacitive arcs showed an increasing trend. The diameter of the capacitive arc of the coating with 5wt.% BTA@DME/PDA microcapsules was the largest. These results further corroborate that the coating with 5wt.% microcapsules showed the best corrosion resistance. The equivalent circuit of the fitting curve is shown in
Figure 7 (e), where RS is the solution resistance, Rc is the coating resistance, Cc is the constant phase element of the coating capacitance, R1 is the charge transfer resistance, CPE is the constant phase element of the double-layer capacitance, and R2 and CPE2 are used to describe mass transfer.