Enhanced Mechanical, Anticorrosion, and Antimicrobial Properties of Epoxy Coating via Pine Pollen Modified Clay Incorporation

In this study, Pine Pollen (PP) was introduced into the structure of sodium montmorillonite (Na+-MMT), and then these new nanoparticles (PP-MMT) were added to the epoxy resin (EP), and new nanocomposites were prepared. The results of the PP-MMT investigation confirmed the presence of PP in the structure. The results of polarization and salt spray tests showed that the presence of PP-MMT in the matrix improves corrosion resistance, so the coating containing 1.5wt. % PP-MMT showed an inhibition efficiency of about 87%. The storage module (E’) for EP was 2170 MPa, which increases with increasing PP-MMT content up to 2350 MPa, also the effect of PP-MMT on the glass transition temperature (Tg) was up to 2.5 °C. Also, the strength and Young’s modulus increased up to 13 and 126 MPa, respectively. Moreover, the antimicrobial results showed that the presence of PP-MMT made the nanocomposite effective against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Escherichia coli, and Shigella dysenteriae.