A direct one-step synthesis of a smart graphene/silica nanocomposite and its application for improving the acid resistance and corrosion resistance properties of waterborne epoxy coatings.

Graphene has attracted tremendous attention as a potential building block of modern high performance coating systems. Herein, we demonstrate a green method for making reduced oxide graphene (rGO) using the natural product rutin as the reducing agent. The rGO, with residual rutin on the surface to provide surface affinity, is used in the one-step fabrication of a nanocomposite of rGO and silica nanoparticles (SN) with a corrosion inhibitor, benzotriazole (BTA), loaded .