Robust superhydrophobic coatings prepared by cathodic electrophoresis of hydrophobic silica nanoparticles with the cationic resin as the adhesive for corrosion protection

The practical application of superhydrophobic surfaces in corrosion protection often suffers from complicated fabrication processes, requirement for high-cost fluorosilane modification and poor mechanical durability. In order to address above mentioned drawbacks, in this work, robust protective superhydrophobic SiO2 coatings are fabricated on electrically conductive metal surfaces by a single one-step electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique from EPD bath containing superhydrophobic SiO2 nanoparticles (SH-SiO2 NPs) and resin-based adhesive. The as-prepared superhydrophobic coatings exhibit good anti-corrosion performance in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution. Furthermore, additional corrosion inhibition is achieved after incorporation of inhibitors into the above superhydrophobic coatings by deposition of inhibitor-loaded SH-SiO2 NPs.