Investigation of corrosion resistance and interfacial bonding properties of silver/silicone zinc-rich coating/substrate system in marine environment

This paper aims to study the corrosion resistance and interfacial bonding properties of the silver zinc-rich coating/substrate system and silicone zinc-rich coating/substrate system. The actual working state of the system in marine environment was simulated by the coupled effects of corrosion and pre-stretching. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) was used in corrosion test to analyze the surface morphology and corrosion products. Meanwhile, the degradation degree of the corrosion resistance was investigated based on the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and water absorption rate. Three-point bending test and tensile test combined with digital image correlation (DIC) were performed to evaluate the interfacial bonding properties of these two systems based on the elastic modulus and critical cracking strain. Results show that the dense accumulation of aluminum and zinc powders makes the silver zinc-rich coating have higher corrosion resistance compared to the silicone zinc-rich coating. The combined effects of corrosion and pre-stretching on the fracture toughness of silicone zinc-rich coating are larger than that of the silver zinc-rich coating. The interfacial bonding properties of the coating/substrate systems gradually degrade as the pre-stretching load approaches the critical cracking load of the coating.