Assessment of synthesis conditions on the corrosion inhibitive features of ZIF-67 MOF

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have indeed attracted substantial interest owing to their distinctive features and diverse applications, such as corrosion protection. In this work, using two synthesis methods, namely co-precipitation (CZ67) and solvothermal (SZ67), a cobalt-based zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF-67) was developed as an essential family of MOFs. The results of the characterization confirmed that ZIF-67 particles were synthesized successfully. According to the results of XRD, FE-SEM, TEM, ICP-OES, TGA, and BET analysis, the SZ67 has a higher surface area and higher stability in solution compared to CZ67. In addition, CZ67 and SZ67 were introduced in epoxy coatings to form CZ67/EPC and SZ67/EPC. The SZ67/EPC exhibited greater corrosion inhibition activity than the CZ67/EPC. After 24 h of exposure to the salty media, the|Z|at the low frequency for the scratched SZ67/EPC (119,500 Ω.cm2) reached 1.1 and 5.7 times of that for the CZ67/EPC and Neat epoxy coatings, respectively. Furthermore, SZ67/EPC demonstrated superior barrier anticorrosion properties during immersion for forty days. The corrosion protection and adhesion performance of SZ67/EPC surpassed the rest of the coated samples after salt spray exposure.