Effect of low curing temperature on the anticorrosion performance of composite coatings reinforced with modified Fe₃O₄

In this manuscript, the neat epoxy (EP) and functionalized Fe₃O₄ (G-Fe₃O₄) reinforced epoxy (G-Fe₃O₄/EP) coatings were cured under different temperatures, and the effect of the low curing temperature on the anticorrosion performance was investigated. The experimental results show that the epoxy-amine ring-open addition reaction mainly exists in the curing process, and the activation energies of the reaction for the two coatings are 55.84 and 53.29 kJ/mol, respectively. For the coatings cured at the low temperature, almost no pores could be detected on the fracture surface, but the presentence of the rough regions reflects the poor curing state. As compared with the samples cured at the high temperature, the anticorrosion performance of the coatings with the low curing temperature is worse, and the decrease rate of the anticorrosion performance is slower, because of the poor curing state and low adhesion obtained at the low temperature.