Preparation of anticorrosion hybrid silica sol–gel coating using Ce(NO3)3 as catalyst

In this report, hybrid silica sol–gel coating was prepared using Ce(NO 3 ) 3 (Sol-Ce) as catalyst. Structure, surface morphology and anticorrosion ability of Sol-Ce solution/coating were studied by infrared spectroscopy (IR), scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), potentiodynamic scan (PDS) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). IR results showed that Ce(NO 3 ) 3 had a stronger influence on reactivity of alkoxysilane. EDS results revealed that the fraction of Fe in Sol-Ce coating was significantly lower than regular acid-catalyzed hybrid silica sol–gel coating (Sol-Ac) and Sol-Ac with Ce(NO 3 ) 3 -doped coating (Sol-Ac/Ce). The results of PDS and EIS demonstrated that Sol-Ce coating had better anticorrosion ability than Sol-Ac and Sol-Ac/Ce on carbon steel. The enhanced anticorrosion performance of the Sol-Ce coating might result from the following two reasons: (a) Ce(NO 3 ) 3 as a catalyst could alleviate the negative effects of low pH with using acid catalyst (dissolution of carbon steel) and (b) Ce(NO 3 ) 3 could impede corrosion of carbon steel as corrosion inhibitor.