Development and Characterization of Epoxy/Banana Pseudo-Stem Nanocellulose (BPNC) Composites as Anti-Corrosion Coatings on Mild Steel
Kurt Sterling M. Ubas (a,b*), Jessalyn C. Grumo (a,b), Archie G. Ruda (a,b), Marjune T. Bonilla (a,b), Aaron Andrew B. Mutia (a,b,c), Lloyd Allan T. Cabanog (a,b,c), Joselito P. Labis (d), Arnold C. Alguno (a,b)

a) Department of Physics, College of Science and Mathematics, Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City, 9200, Philippines
b) Premier Research Institute of Science and Mathematics, Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City, 9200, Philippines
* kurtsterling.ubas[at]g.msuiit.edu.ph
c) Department of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences, Central Mindanao University, Maramag, 8714, Philippines
d) King Abdullah Institute of Nanotechnology, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Epoxy-based nanocomposite coatings have attracted attention in industrial and engineering applications. Epoxy/Banana pseudo-stem nanocellulose (Epoxy/BPNC) composites as anti-corrosive fillers were prepared by incorporating BPNC into the epoxy matrix to improve the anti-corrosion performance of epoxy coatings in mild steel surfaces. The Tafel polarization technique explores their anti-corrosion properties under immersion in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solutions as a corrosive medium. According to the results, it can be observed that epoxy/BPNC composite coatings significantly improve the anti-corrosion performance in mild steel surfaces with 1.5 wt.% BPNC loading ratio as the optimized concentration. SEM results presented that the presence of BPNC in the epoxy matrix has a significant protective effect compared to pure epoxy alone. Further, epoxy/BPNC composite coatings have significantly higher protection efficiency (PE) than bare mild steel and epoxy-coated mild steel of around 99.98%.

Keywords: Epoxy coatings- Nanocomposites- Corrosion protection- Mild steel- Banana pseudo-stem- Nanocellulose

Topic: Material and Applied Chemistry