Research Article

Fabrication of quaternary ammonium polymer functionalized MXene nanocomposite coatings for antifouling and anticorrosion applications

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, PR China
² Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Materials and Application Technology of Ministry of Education, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, PR China

^* e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Jun Tang); This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Fugang Qi)

Received: 23 June 2025
Accepted: 31 December 2025

Abstract

Marine corrosion inflicts substantial economic losses to the marine industry and has become a widespread problem. Previous researches have confirmed the antimicrobial activity of MXene. In this study, a silane coupling agent, KH570, was introduced for grafting MXene, followed by free radical polymerization with the antifouling agent dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA), resulting in a block polymerized functionalized MXene (referred to as PQDMX). In contrast to conventional coatings that only provide anti-corrosion or anti-fouling properties, the formulated PQDMX/EP exhibited commendable anti-fouling traits, with a 63% increase in inhibition rate. This enhancement is attributed to the synergistic anti-fouling effect of MXene nanosheets and quaternary ammonium polymer. Furthermore, PQDMX/EP demonstrated superior anti-corrosion performance, owing to the incapacitation of corrosive ions by Ti₃C₂T_x nanosheets. Even after 14 days of immersion, the Nyquist plot of the composite coating indicates high |Zf|_{0.01 Hz} values, reaching up to 4.13 E10 Ω cm².