Design and mechanism research of extremely strong anti-corrosion coatings with rapid self-healing capability

Abstract Organic coatings possess great anti-corrosion properties, but they cannot repair themselves after being damaged and thus losing their protective ability. In this article, we designed a new coating capable of self-healing and superior anti-corrosion properties. In the molecular structure, the existence of abundant hydrogen bonds and N elements endows the coating excellent adhesion strength (8.36 MPa) and anti-corrosion property. The dynamic rearrangement of the numerous hydrogen bonds after being damaged can also promotes the self-healing process. After self-healing at 60 °C for 3 h, the toughness of the coating can recover by 89.3% and the anti-corrosion performance is also similar to the original sample. Besides we also performed the self-healing mechanism analysis combining the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and experimental methods. According to the change of vdW energy and the number of hydrogen bonds analysis during the self-healing process, the recombination of hydrogen bonds and (van der Waals) vdW interactions promote self-healing. This work offers a valuable strategy for engineering protective coatings that possess both efficient self-healing capabilities and sensitive corrosion reporting functions and a feasible method to perform the mechanism analysis.