Pure inorganic protective silica coating on stainless steel prepared at low heat treatment temperature

Stainless steel is widely known to have superior corrosion properties. However, in some harsh conditions it still suffers various kinds of corrosions such as galvanic corrosion, pitting corrosion, intergranular corrosion, chloride stress corrosion cracking, and etc. For the corrosion protection of stainless steel, the ceramic coatings such as protective silica film can be used. The sol-gel coating technique for the silica film has been extensively studied especially because of the cost effectiveness. It has been proved that silica can improve the oxidation and the acidic corrosion resistance of metal surface in a wide range of temperatures due to its high heat and chemical resistance. However, in the sol-gel coating process there used to engage a heat treatment at an elevated temperature like $500^{\circ}C{\sim}600^{\circ}C$ where cracks in the silica film would be formed because of the thermal expansion mismatch with the metal. The cracks and pores of the film would deteriorate the corrosion resistance. When the heat treatment temperature is reduced while keeping the adhesion and the density of the film, it could possibly give the enhanced corrosion resistance. In this respect, inorganic protective silica film was tried on the surface of stainless steel using a sol-gel chemical route where silica nanoparticles, tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) were used. Silica nanoparticles with different sizes were mixed and then the film was deposited on the stainless steel substrate. It was intended by mixing the small and the large particles at the same time a sufficient consolidation of the film is possible because of the high surface activity of the small nanoparticles and a modest silica film is obtained with a low temperature heat treatment at as low as $200^{\circ}C$. The prepared film showed enhanced adhesion when compared with a silica film without nanoparticle addition. The films also showed improved protect ability against corrosion.