A multifunctional and long-term waterborne anti-corrosion coating with excellent ‘hexagonal warrior’ properties

Environmentally friendly waterborne coatings tend to form polar pathways due to more hydrophilic groups, resulting in poor coating corrosion resistance and reduced coating service life. The anisotropic Janus is used as a filler for waterborne epoxy (WEP) coatings to reduce the number of hydrophilic groups and improve interface compatibility by cross-linking the hydrophilic end with the resin; at the same time, the hydrophobic groups are used to improve the water resistance of the coating. In this paper, we synthesized sheet-like silica Janus (JNS) materials by interface-induced self-assembly via sol–gel reaction in oil-in-water emulsions to prepare novel water-based JNS/WEP anticorrosion coatings. The excellent corrosion resistance of JNS/WEP coatings is explained by the fact that the hydrophilic end of JNS reduces internal defects in the coating and enhanced interfacial interaction; the hydrophobic end improves the water resistance of the coating. Similarly, the physical barrier advantage of flake JNS is brought into play to reduce the high availability of water and oxygen, inhibit electrochemical corrosion on the surface of carbon steel and form a passivation film; the active group at the hydrophilic end of JNS can be chelated with Fe3+ for active protection by synergistic. Among them, immersed in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution for 130 days, the impedance modulus of 1.0 % JNS/WEP coating is 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of WEP coating, up to 2.59 × 1010 O cm2. Therefore, it exhibits outstanding anti-corrosion performance under multiple synergistic protection.