Superior Anticorrosion Performance of Well-Dispersed MXene-Polymer Composite Coatings Enabled by Covalent Modification and Ambient Electron-Beam Curing

MXene-reinforced composite coatings have recently shown promise for metal anticorrosion due to their large aspect ratio and antipermeability; however, the challenges of the poor dispersion, oxidation, and sedimentation of MXene nanofillers in a resin matrix that are often encountered in the existing curing methods have greatly limited practical applications. Herein, we reported an efficient, ambient, and solvent-free electron beam (EB) curing technology to fabricate PDMS@MXene filled acrylate-polyurethane (APU) coatings for anticorrosion of 2024 Al alloy, a common aerospace structural material. We showed that the dispersion of MXene nanoflakes modified by PDMS-OH was dramatically improved in EB-cured resin and enhanced the water resistance through the additional water-repellent groups of PDMS-OH. Moreover, the controllable irradiation-induced polymerization enabled a unique high-density cross-linked network, presenting a large physical barrier against corrosive media. The newly developed APU-PDMS@MX1 coatings achieved excellent corrosion-resistance with the highest protection efficiency of 99.9957%. The coating filled with uniformly distributed PDMS@MXene promoted the corrosion potential, corrosion current density, and corrosion rate to be −0.14 V, 1.49 × 10–9 A/cm2, and 0.0004 mm/year, respectively, and the impedance modulus was increased by 1–2 orders of magnitude compared to that of APU-PDMS coating. This work combining 2D material with EB curing technology broadens the avenue for designing and fabricating composite coatings for metal corrosion protection.