Experimental and computational studies of a graphene oxide barrier layer covalently functionalized with amino acids on Mg AZ13 alloy in salt medium

Magnesium alloys are promising materials for the biomedical and automobile industries. The Mg alloy's light-weight property leads to numerous industrial applications. However, the magnesium alloy oxide layers are not stable in salt environments. Organic inhibitors and epoxy coatings fail as long term barriers in such media. Recently, carbon based functionalized materials, graphene oxides, were shown to be promising materials for improving corrosion resistance in acid and salt environments. Our research considered graphene oxide covalently functionalized with the amino acid leucine to form anticorrosion coating materials. The functionalized materials were characterized by XRD, Raman, FESEM, HRTEM, FTIR, and AFM methods. The corrosion inhibition efficiency was monitored by electrochemical methods. The novelty of the functionalized graphene oxide materials is that they are water impermeable, and thus could enhance the anticorrosion resistance in salt environments.