The production of a corrosion resistant graphene reinforced composite coating on copper by electrophoretic deposition

We report the fabrication of a robust graphene reinforced composite coating with excellent corrosion resistance by aqueous cathodic electrophoretic deposition (EPD). At optimum EPD conditions, a coating thickness of around 40 nm is obtained at 10 V and deposition time of 30 s. The surface morphological characterization are carried out by scanning electron microscopy which clearly shows reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with sizes ranging from 1 to 2 mu m uniformly coated on the copper sheet. The composite coating is shown to significantly increase the resistance of the metal to electrochemical degradation. Tafel analysis confirms that the corrosion rate exhibited by composite coating is an order of magnitude lower than that of bare copper. It is expected that this simple EPD technique for producing a graphene-reinforced composite coating can open a new avenue especially for marine engineering materials where resistance to salt water is of paramount importance. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.