Assessment of Anticorrosion Performance of Zinc-Rich Epoxy Coatings Added with Zinc Fibers for Corrosion Protection of Steel

The effect of adding 0.5 wt % zinc fibers on the anticorrosion performance of zinc-rich epoxy (ZRE) coatings with 85, 75, and 65 wt % of zinc dust was investigated. The salt spray testing, scanning electron microscopy, open circuit potential, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were used to characterize the corrosion protection performance of coatings. The results indicate that the ZRE coating containing 85 wt % zinc dust showed superior cathodic protection, while the coating with 65 wt % zinc dust provided neither cathodic protection nor good barrier protection. No significant improvement in the anticorrosion performance was observed for both coatings with the addition of 0.5 wt % zinc fibers. In contrast, the ZRE coating containing 75 wt % zinc dust, which provided short-term cathodic protection followed by barrier protection, showed remarkably improved anticorrosion performance with the addition of zinc fibers.