Study on cerium-doped nano-TiO(2) coatings for corrosion protection of 316 L stainless steel

Many methods have been reported on improving the photogenerated cathodic protection of nano-TiO(2) coatings for metals. In this work, nano-TiO(2) coatings doped with cerium nitrate have been developed by sol–gel method for corrosion protection of 316 L stainless steel. Surface morphology, structure, and properties of the prepared coatings were investigated by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The corrosion protection performance of the prepared coatings was evaluated in 3 wt% NaCl solution by using electrochemical techniques in the presence and absence of simulated sunlight illumination. The results indicated that the 1.2% Ce-TiO(2) coating with three layers exhibited an excellent photogenerated cathodic protection under illumination attributed to the higher separation efficiency of electron–hole pairs and higher photoelectric conversion efficiency. The results also showed that after doping with an appropriate concentration of cerium nitrate, the anti-corrosion performance of the TiO(2) coating was improved even without irradiation due to the self-healing property of cerium ions.