A combination of a series of epoxy coatings filled with octadecylamine (ODA)-modified graphene oxide (mGO) or commercial exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnP) was developed to boost the anticorrosion performances of mild steel substrates in acidic and NaCl aqueous solutions. The xGnP and mGO were applied successfully as fillers for the preparation of layer by layer (LBL) xGnP or mGO/epoxy coatings, respectively, which were coated on the clean steel surfaces to form LBLassembled layers. The LBL-assembled xGnP or mGO/epoxy coating-coated steel substrates exhibit excellent anticorrosion performances. The corrosion potentials (Ecorr) of xGnP-1/xGnP-2/3 and mGO-1/mGO-2/3 display at − 193 and − 150 mV, respectively, while Ecorr of the bare steel shows at − 871 mV of immersion in the 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. The most positive Ecorr values are obtained for xGnP-1/2/3 (− 117 mV) and mGO-1/2/3 (− 66 mV), showing the best anticorrosion performances compared to the bare steel (− 404 mV) in 17 wt% HCl solution.

Enhancement of anticorrosion performance of epoxy coatings with exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets and functionalized graphene
    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Experimental
        2.1 Materials
        2.2 Fabrication of mGO filler
        2.3 Preparation of samples
        2.4 Characterization
    3 Results and discussion
        3.1 Morphological and structural analyses of fillers
        3.2 Thermal performance and structural analyses of composites
        3.3 Anticorrosion performance of composites
    4 Conclusions
    Acknowledgements 
    References

• Meng Guo(School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Nanyang Institute of Technology, Nanyang 473000, China) Corresponding author
• Xuyang Li(School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanyang Normal University, Nanyang 473061, China)
• Jia Du(School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Nanyang Institute of Technology, Nanyang 473000, China)
• Xueguo Liu(School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Nanyang Institute of Technology, Nanyang 473000, China)
• Nam Hoon Kim(Advanced Materials Institute of BIN Convergence Technology (BK21 Plus Global), Department of BIN Convergence Technology, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea)
• Joong Hee Lee(Advanced Materials Institute of BIN Convergence Technology (BK21 Plus Global), Department of BIN Convergence Technology, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea, Carbon Composite Research Centre, Department of Polymer ‑ Nano Science and Technology, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea)