Zinc phosphate as corrosion inhibitive pigment of waterborne epoxy paints used for steel protection

Health and safety legislation has forced changes in the type of anticorrosive pigments used in paint formulations, mainly focused on their substitution with different phosphates. The zinc phosphate pigment used with different types of binders has provided contradictory experimental results. In this paper, waterborne anticorrosive paints pigmented with zinc phosphates were studied. The main variables considered were PVC and the anticorrosive pigment content. Accelerated tests (salt spray, humidity chamber, and electrochemical tests) were performed to evaluate the paints’ anticorrosive performance. Good correlation was found using salt spray and impedance tests. From analysis of the time dependence of all the experimental results it was concluded that an efficient steel protection could be obtained using a waterborne epoxy primer pigmented with zinc phosphate. Such protection is attained through the barrier effect afforded by the paint film as well as the precipitation of a pretty stable ferric phosphate layer under the intact and damaged coating areas.