Plasma treated h-BN nanoflakes as barriers to enhance anticorrosion of acrylic coating on steel

h-BN nanoflakes were treated in three plasma gases (Ar、Ar+H 2 (4:1)、Ar + NH 3 (4:1)) for surface modification. The structure characterization (XRD, IR, XPS etc.) of h-BN indicated that the plasma treatment not only enlarged the interlayer distance of h-BN, but also increased the NH/OH surface groups and the ratio of exfoliated h-BN planes. The plasma treated h-BN exhibited better dispersion and stronger Fe 2+ holding ability in acrylic resin than the pristine h-BN, resulting in smaller corrosion current density (i corr ) and larger charge transfer resistance for the acrylic coating on low carbon steel, especially treated in Ar + NH 3 (4:1).