Enhanced Anticorrosion of Waterborne Epoxy Coating with MWCNTs-CeO₂@PDA Incorporation

Harnessing the abundant renewable energy and resources in the ocean is attractive but difficult because of the severe corrosion of energy-harvesting devices. Here, we first prepared MWCNTs-CeO2@PDA (CCP) nanohybrid filler by loading CeO2 onto MWCNTs using a simple one-pot method combined with PDA modification and then introduced the CCP filler into waterborne epoxy (WEP) to form a CCP/WEP composite coating with enhanced corrosion protection. The CCP filler exhibits superior dispersion in WEP after PDA modification. The synergy of the prolonged and hindered diffusion path formed by MWCNTs and the corrosion inhibition effect caused by CeO2 endows the CCP/WEP composite coating with excellent anticorrosion behavior in 3.5 wt % NaCl solution. This study presents a practical and efficient approach for producing composite coatings with high performance to protect devices working in the ocean from corrosion.