Abstract:
Industrial growth has played a vital role in facilitating human beings. Fossil fuels are
widely used for different purposes. Several oil refineries and rigs are implanted comprising
a huge pipeline network. Carbon steel is mostly used for pipes. Metal and corrosion always
exist in parallel to each other, so corrosion of pipelines in fuel industries is a very
highlighted problem. Advancement of materials and processes aids to solve industrial
issues in a novel and smart method. 2D materials are incorporated with other polymers to
form different new materials. Corrosion-resistant coatings are synthesized to increase the
lifetime of pipelines. This study is done to produce PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) films
with MoS2 (molybdenum disulfide) nanosheets as a filler on the laboratory scale. Thin
films act as a coating to resist corrosion. Liquid phase exfoliation was applied for the
synthesis of nanosheets. Temperature-induced phase separation (TIPS) was the approach
employed to prepare PET/MoS2 nanocomposites. Centrifuge RPM during the preparation
of nanosheets and weight percent of filler in PET was variable to study the effect of these
factors, other variables of the experiment were kept constant. Among 500, 1000, and 1500
RPMs, 500 rpm was titled as best on basis of gas barrier properties. Filler weight
percentages of 0.0025, 0.005, and 0.01 were added to PET, 0.01 appeared to be the best
percentage. Gas permeation tests proved the enhanced gas barrier properties of thin films.
Experimental results were compared with theoretical models, and it was found that the
Cussler model closely fits our experimental results. 95% reduction in permeation was
achieved using only .00025wt% MoS2 nanosheet filler. CO2 gas was used for the
permeation test, the duration of testing was 8 to 24 hours. SEM (Scanning Electron
Microscopy), AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) images of fillers and peaks through XRD
(X-Ray Diffraction) authenticate successful synthesis of nanosheets. Same, SEM and XRD
were performed for thin PET/MoS2 films to study and verify the decrease in porosity and
presence of MoS2 nanosheets
