Insight into anticorrosion/antiwear behavior of inorganic-organic multilayer protection system composed of nitriding layer and epoxy coating with Ti3C2Tx MXene

Highlights: • An inorganic-organic multilayer protection system composed of nitriding layer and Ti₃C₂T_x/epoxy coating is designed and prepared. • The synergistic effect of Ti₃C₂T_x/epoxy coating and nitriding layer in matrix protection is studied in detail. • The multilayer protection system exhibits better anticorrosion and antiwear properties than single coating. A single protective coating is difficult to fulfill the applications' requirement of antiwear and anticorrosion in an aggressive environment. The synergy of plasma nitriding technique and epoxy composite coating is effective strategy to protect the aluminium (Al) alloys from corrosion and wear. To achieve the long-term corrosion and wear resistance for Al alloys, an inorganic-organic multilayer protection system composed of nitriding layer and Ti₃C₂T_x/epoxy coating was prepared and its protection properties were evaluated in detail. The results demonstrated that the electrochemical impedance was enhanced by two orders of magnitude during 4 weeks of immersion in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution and the wear rate was decreased by 96.26%. The following reasons can account for the results: (a) the nitriding layer with high hardness served as a shield against outside invasion; (b) Ti₃C₂T_x/epoxy coating with a physical barrier network could repair the surface defects of nitriding layer; (c) the mechanical interlocking improved the interaction between nitriding layer and Ti₃C₂T_x/epoxy coating; (d) the lubrication of Ti₃C₂T_x flakes relieved the shear force. Therefore, the inorganic-organic multilayer protection system was expected to be a promising candidate for anticorrosion and antiwear applications.