A promising nanocomposite from CNTs and nano-ceria: Nanostructured fillers in polyurethane coatings for surface protection

The balanced combination of nanostructured carbon materials and metal oxide nanoparticles has been considered as an efficient reinforcement material in developing next-generation multifunctional coatings. Herein, we demonstrate a general approach to fabricate a CNT based nanocomposite with the inclusion of CeO₂ nanoparticles that can be effectively implemented as a reinforcement material in surface protective coatings. The synthesized CNT/CeO₂ nanocomposite was characterized by spectral and surface morphological analyses, which indicated that the CeO₂ nanoparticles were successfully deposited onto the surface of the CNTs. The XRD pattern shows the semi-crystalline nature of the CNTs and the face centered cubic structure of the CeO₂ nanoparticles. The prepared nanocomposite has subsequently been used as a nanofiller in polyurethane (PU) coatings for surface protection of steel substrates and a remarkable synergistic effect of nano-ceria and CNTs has been observed. The corrosion resistance of steel coated with a PU coating containing CNT/CeO₂ was pointedly higher than with a pure PU coating and a PU coating with CNTs alone. This result suggests a new prospect for solving the corrosion issues encountered on steel structures in industrial applications by using multifunctional hybrid coatings with nanostructured reinforcements.