Steel protection by SiO₂/TiO₂ core-shell based hybrid nanocoating

This research work is devoted towards the development of highly efficient and cost-effective multifunctional nanocoating by silica-titania core-shell particles. These core-shell nanoparticles were synthesized by peptization process. Easy synthesis steps and low processing temperature is major achievement of this technique. In this research, developed core-shell nanoparticles were incorporated in polyurethane (PU) at various concentration for the development of multifunctional surfaces on mild steel substrate. Reason behind this core-shell fabrication is to merge two different material properties in a single structure, in which silica (SiO₂) is used as a core material for improvement in mechanical properties and shell titania (TiO₂) is used to enhance the antimicrobial as well as hydrophobicity of the same coating surface. Initially, prepared nanoparticles were investigated by TEM and XPS for the confirmation of core-shell structure. Further these nano core-shell particles were aided in to the PU matrix and developed coatings were characterised by antimicrobial testing, surface wettability (water and oil), scratch-resistance, corrosion and erosion behaviour. After analysing all the data, we found the best results at 4% (wt) concentration of nano core-shell particles aided in the PU coating system for multipurpose applications.