Enhanced anti-corrosion performances of epoxy resin using the addition of sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate-modified graphene

The improvement of anti-corrosive property of epoxy resin is significant for the develop-ment of coatings to avoid metal corrosion and thus to reduce the economic loss in many industries. The superior properties of graphene, a two-dimensional material, make it possibly suitable to fulfill this task. However, this is hindered by the easy agglomeration of graphene layers in solvents. In the present work, we report the modification and stabilization of graphene in water using sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) and the enhancement of the anti-corrosive properties of epoxy resin by mixing such SDBS-modified graphene layers. The influence of the dosage of SDBS on the modification effect of graphene was studied in detail and an optimized dosage, i.e., 50 mg SDBS for 10 mg graphene, was obtained. The SDBS modification could effectively reduce graphene thick-ness, and the minimum thickness of the modified graphene was 3.50 nm. The modified graphene had increased layer spacing, and the maximum layer spacing was 0.426 nm. When the modified graphene was added into the epoxy resin, the electrochemical impedance modulus value evidently increased compared to pure epoxy resin and those incorporated by pure graphene, indicating that the anti-corrosion performance was significantly improved. These results clarified that SDBS could effectively modify graphene and the SDBS-modified graphene could subsequently largely improve the anti-corrosive property of epoxy resin, which is of significance for the anti-corrosive coatings.