Nano Express
Study on cerium-doped nano-TiO2 coatings for corrosion protection of 316 L stainless steel
Author affiliations
1 School of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China
2 Business School, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, 102249, China
3 State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Film and Integrated Devices, School of Microelectronics and Solid-state Electronics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China
Citation and License
Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:227 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-7-227
Published: 19 April 2012Abstract
Many methods have been reported on improving the photogenerated cathodic protection of nano-TiO2 coatings for metals. In this work, nano-TiO2 coatings doped with cerium nitrate have been developed by sol–gel method for corrosion protection of 316 L stainless steel. Surface morphology, structure, and properties of the prepared coatings were investigated by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The corrosion protection performance of the prepared coatings was evaluated in 3 wt% NaCl solution by using electrochemical techniques in the presence and absence of simulated sunlight illumination. The results indicated that the 1.2% Ce-TiO2 coating with three layers exhibited an excellent photogenerated cathodic protection under illumination attributed to the higher separation efficiency of electron–hole pairs and higher photoelectric conversion efficiency. The results also showed that after doping with an appropriate concentration of cerium nitrate, the anti-corrosion performance of the TiO2 coating was improved even without irradiation due to the self-healing property of cerium ions.
