Molecular level hybridized hydrophobic ceramics for corrosion protection

Abstract

Hydrophobic ceramics with low surface energies have a broad range of applications in both industry and domestic fields. However, the common surface-treatment-based hydrophobic ceramics are usually vulnerable and easy to lose functions due to surficial mechanical damages. To address this challenge, here we propose a new strategy to produce intrinsically hybrid hydrophobic ceramics by leveraging alkylated-geopolymerization. As proof-of-concept, we designed and synthesized an alkylated-geopolymer (AGP) based ceramic with excellent waterproof performance and damage tolerance. Microstructure characterizations reveal that this organic-inorganic hybrid ceramic contains hybridized inorganic aluminosilicate networks and the alkylated-silicate units at the molecular scale, offering benefits of high hydrophobicity and functional robustness. The geopolymerization-mediated synthetic route demonstrate here enables a facile access to robust hybrid coating materials for enduring protection of metallic surfaces from corrosion in thermal environments (< 350°C) with high humidity. Furthermore, our work also opens new avenues for designing of new functional ceramics from the molecular scale by a clean and low-cost procedure.