Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Apr 30:13:1544762.
doi: 10.3389/fchem.2025.1544762. eCollection 2025.

Incorporating graphene-modified mica and conductive nickel particles for enhanced corrosion resistance in epoxy zinc-rich coatings

Yong Jiang  1 , Haiping Zhang  1 , Hui Zhang  2 , Yuanyuan Shao  3 , Jesse Zhu  4 , Xuliang Jin  5
Affiliations

Incorporating graphene-modified mica and conductive nickel particles for enhanced corrosion resistance in epoxy zinc-rich coatings

Yong Jiang et al. Front Chem. .

Abstract

Epoxy zinc-rich coatings usually require high zinc content to ensure its anti-corrosion performance. However, excessive zinc powder content will reduce the mechanical properties of the coating, increase the economic cost, harm the environment, etc. Therefore, this paper aims to reduce the amount of zinc powder and improve the corrosion performance of epoxy zinc-rich coatings by introducing two kinds of conductive particle materials, conductive graphene-mica powder and conductive nickel. Conductive graphene was first loaded on mica powder and the obtained conductive graphene-mica powder and the conductive nickel were introduced to the epoxy zinc-rich coatings to partially replace zinc component. The anti-corrosion properties of the coating were systematically evaluated by EIS and salt spray test. The resulting epoxy zinc-rich coating with nickel powder or conductive graphene-mica demonstrates outstanding salt spray resistance, lasting up to 2,000 h, exhibiting superior anti-corrosion performance at reduced zinc content of 60% or 45% compared to conventional coatings with 70% pure zinc powder. This study introduces a novel conductive mica material and investigates conductive metal nickel additive, effectively reducing zinc content in epoxy zinc-rich coatings, which offers valuable insights for developing high-performance anti-corrosion coatings.

Keywords: anti-corrosion coatings; conductive mica; conductive nickel; epoxy zinc-rich coatings; graphene.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
SEM of conductive fillers ((A)-zinc powder; (B)-conductive nickel; (C)-doped graphene conductive mica).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
(A) XRD of conductive nickel, (B) XRD of conductive graphene-mica, (C) FTIR of conductive nickel and (D) FTIR of conductive graphene-mica.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Distribution of Ni and Zn elements in the coating with conductive nickel powder ((A)-Ni5; (B)-Ni10; (C)-Ni15).
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Distribution of C element, O element and Zn element in doped graphene conductive mica coating ((A)-GM15; (B)-GM20; (C)-GM25).
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
2,000 h salt fog resistance photos of conductive nickel-containing epoxy zinc-rich coating (A) Zn70 (B) Ni5 (C) Ni10 (D) Ni15.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
The average unilateral corrosion width of conductive nickel-containing epoxy zinc-rich coating.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Photos of graphene-modified conductive mica epoxy zinc-rich coating resistant to salt spray for 2,000 h (A) GM15 (B) GM20 (C) GM25.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
The average corrosion width of conductive graphene-mica epoxy zinc-rich coating.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Impedance spectra of three kinds of epoxy zinc-rich coatings in 3.5% NaCl solution at different times (A, B) 15 h; (C, D) 100 h; (E, F) 600 h; (G, H) 1,200 h.
FIGURE 10
FIGURE 10
(A) Equivalent circuit diagram; (B) Curve of R t changing with soaking time; (C) Curve of R c changing with soaking time.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Al-Nafai I., Rzeszutek K., Lyon S., Jones C., Beaumont D. (2025). How aluminium additions improve the performance of zinc‐rich organic coatings. Mater. Corros. 76, 53–70. 10.1002/maco.202414529 - DOI
    1. Bai C.-Y., Lee J. L., Wen T. M., Hou K. H., Wu M. S., Ger M. D. (2011). The characteristics of chromized 1020 steel with electrical discharge machining and Ni electroplating pretreatments. Appl. Surf. Sci. 257 (8), 3529–3537. 10.1016/j.apsusc.2010.11.070 - DOI
    1. Brug G. J., van den Eeden A. L. G., Sluyters-Rehbach M., Sluyters J. (1984). The analysis of electrode impedances complicated by the presence of a constant phase element. J. Electroanal. Chem. 176, 275–295. 10.1016/0368-1874(84)83477-2 - DOI
    1. Chao Z., Chao W., Bo J., Renguo S. (2023). Preparation and research of AZ31 magnesium alloy micro-arc oxidation/epoxy rensin-nickel powder conductive coating. Mater. Prot. 56 (8), 64–69.
    1. Chen Z., Cai Y., Lu Y., Cao Q., Lv P., Zhang Y., et al. (2022). Preparation and performance study of carboxy-functionalized graphene oxide composite polyaniline modified water-based epoxy zinc-rich coatings. Coatings 12 (6), 824. 10.3390/coatings12060824 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources