Durable superhydrophobic PTFE-rich/Acrylic rGO Loaded Self-lubricating Coating to Advance Wear and Long-time Corrosion: Experimental studies and molecular dynamics simulation of friction and corrosive agents penetration

An important challenge in chemical industries is the development of polymer-based coatings that can effectively resist wear and penetration of corrosive agents in the long run. In this work, a multifunctional coating with superhydrophobicity, self-cleaning, self-lubricating surface, and anti-corrosion properties was prepared by the composition of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), acrylic (AC) resin, and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) particles. The TGA analysis shows that the PTFE/AC coating structure can be stable up to 200 °C due to the high content of PTFE. The EIS, salt spray, and polarization revealed that adding rGO to a PTFE/AC composite increased the corrosion performance by almost one order of magnitude compared to a coating without rGO. The presence of acrylic in the coating significantly reduced the wear rate. In addition, MD simulation results confirm that using rGO particles leads to an improved coating structure in terms of wear and corrosion resistance. Furthermore, the presence of rGO particles results in a decrease of 14 % (0.099 A².ps⁻¹) and 79 % (0.007 A².ps⁻¹) in the diffusion coefficients of water and chloride, respectively. Finally, PTFE/AC/rGO met the research goal as a multifunctional coating with long-term corrosion stability, low friction coefficient surface, self-cleaning performance and water contact angle (WCA) of 165°.