Monitoring underlying epoxy-coated St-37 corrosion via 8-hydroxyquinoline as a fluorescent indicator

In the present study, successful performance of 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) as a ferric ion sensitive indicator is described. 8-HQ was used in epoxy coating because of its desirable properties. It doesn’t exhibit premature fluorescence when mixed with coating precursors. Additionally it shows fluorescence turn-on mechanism upon chelate formation with Fe2+/Fe3+ ions produced during anodic reaction. The effect of different concentrations of 8-HQ (0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 1 wt.%) incorporated in the epoxy coating on corrosion detection as well as optical and electrochemical behavior of the applied coating were studied. The fluorescence property of 8-HQ/Fe3+ solutions was evaluated by using fluorometer. The UV–Visible spectroscopy was used to investigate the effect of 8-HQ presence in the coating on transparency of the free films of the samples. The corrosion detection was performed by fluorescence microscope and the anti-corrosion performance of coated samples containing different concentrations of 8-HQ was studied using salt spray standard test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results of UV–Visible spectroscopy demonstrated that increasing 8-HQ concentration causes a slight decrease in coating transparency. According to the results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements, the polarization resistance of the coated St-37 sample containing 0.1 wt.% 8-HQ was about 109 Ohm cm2 after 6 weeks immersion in corrosive electrolyte, while St-37 plates coated with other 8-HQ concentrations showed decreased resistance levels of about 106 Ohm cm2, during the same immersion period. Based on fluorescence microscopic investigation, as a result of incorporating 8-HQ into the epoxy matrix, fluorescence could be observed in regions where Fe2+/Fe3+ ions were produced through anodic reactions. This method is capable of detecting corrosion in situ at early stages before the metal surface suffers serious damages.