Beads-milling of waste Si sawdust into micro-flakes and applied in UV-curable polystyrene composites for anticorrosion coatings

In this study, the waste Si sawdust (WSS) obtained from the silicon wafer sawing process was applied in polymer composite for anticorrosion application for the first time. The WSS powder was processed through a beads-milling (BM) procedure using Zr beads. Subsequently, WSS-based polystyrene (PS) composite coatings were prepared by photo-polymerization of styrene monomers in the presence of a specific amount of WSS powder with UV radiation. The as-prepared WSS-based PS composite coatings were subsequently investigated and characterized by a series of tests. Anticorrosion performance of sample-coated cold-rolled steel (CRS) electrodes were investigated by a series of electrochemical corrosion measurements (e.g., Tafel, Nyquist, and Bode plots) in saline conditions. Gas permeability analysis (GPA) study of these membranes were also determined to support the anticorrosion data of coatings. It should be noted that the WSS-based PS composite coatings were all found to exhibit better corrosion resistance than that of neat PS. Moreover, the composite coating with higher loading of WSS was found to show better anticorrosion performance than of lower loading of WSS. This may be attributed to the dispersion of WSS particles in PS can effectively prolong the diffusion path of corrosive factors, as evidenced by the corresponding GPA results.