Non-covalently functionalized boron nitride by graphene oxide for anticorrosive reinforcement of water-borne epoxy coating

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has great promise for metal corrosion due to its good impermeability to gas and liquid. However, it is difficult for h-BN to disperse in water-borne epoxy (WBE) matrix owing to its nature hydrophobicity. In this work, h-BN was non-covalently modified by graphene oxide (GO) to enhance the compatibility of h-BN for WBE. And the GO/h-BN composite was characterized by transmittance electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy, UV–vis absorbance spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The corrosion protection and barrier performance of GO/h-BN/WBE were evaluated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and salt spray test, which indicated that the composite coating with 0.3 wt. % GO/h-BN (1:1 w/w) additive exhibited excellent barrier and corrosion protection properties owing to the synergistic impermeable performance of h-BN and GO.