An efficient PDA/Al2O3 nanosheets reinforced ultra-thin ZrO2 coating with attractive anti-corrosion and deuterium resistance property

Two-dimensional materials, impermeable to various mediums, have ignited the great interest in developing multifunction nanocomposite coatings. Even though Al2O3 has excellent thermal and chemical stability, it is hard to obtain Al2O3 nanosheets from their non-lamellar structured bulk counterparts. In this work, we have devel-oped a bottom-up strategy to synthesize several-nanometer thick Al2O3 nanosheets by taking graphene oxide as the templates, and further improved their dispersibility by modifying them with poly-dopamine (PDA). These PDA-modified Al(2)O(3 )nanosheets were then successfully integrated into the nanosized ZrO(2 )coating to enhance its anti-corrosion and gas permeation reduction properties. With the Al2O3 nanosheets inserted, corrosion resistance and deuterium resistance of the ZrO2 coating were increased by 1000% and 1557%, respectively, both of which were above two orders of magnitude higher than that of the 321 steel substrate. The significant improvements achieved by Al2O3 nanosheets demonstrate their capacity to effectively block the diffusion of both ions and deuterium atoms. This work not only offers a new platform for fabricating nanosheets from non-lamellar structured materials, but also indicates tremendous potential of Al(2)O(3 )nanosheets as a novel filler for developing high-performance functional coatings.