Gemini surfactant-assisted fabrication of graphene oxide/polyaniline towards high-performance waterborne anti-corrosive coating

Abstract Graphene oxide/polyaniline (GO/PANI) has been demonstrated to be an effective anti-corrosive nanofiller in polymer matrix, however, its hydrophobility restricts its application in waterborne polymer coatings. Here, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and cationic gemini surfactant (GS) with the same constitutional unit as CTAB were adopted to fabricate CTAB modified GO/PANI (CGO/PANI) and GS modified GO/PANI (GGO/PANI). The incorporation of GS not only increased the intercalation degree of GO nanosheets but also functionalized as dopant to improve the electrochemical properties of PANI. The dispersibility and compatibility of GGO/PANI in waterborne alkyd resin (WAR) were also higher than that of CGO/PANI, resulting in the formation of more uniform nanocomposite coating. Compared with pure WAR, the coating resistance of GGO/PANI/WAR increased by 4 orders of magnitude, the corrosion density decreased by 3 orders of magnitude and the corrosion potential shifted from −0.72 V to −0.28 V. GGO/PANI/WAR also displayed enhanced long-term anti-corrosive properties in comparison with CGO/PANI/WAR.