New microencapsulated material with advanced corrosion resistance activity and superior adhesion strength on the steel sample was synthesized by in-situ polymerization. In this process, urea-formaldehyde was used as capsule shell material for encapsulating modified graphene oxide. The formation of microcapsules was effectively evidenced by FT-IR, SEM, and TGA-DSC analyses. Initially, graphene oxide was modified by the adsorption of Catharanthus roseus L. (C.R) leaves extract and characterized by FT-IR, SEM, EDX, and DFT studies. GO-C.R and UF-GO-C.R (microcapsules) were separately impregnated into epoxy resin and fabricated on the steel substrates. The anti-corrosion performance of UF-GO-C.R/Epoxy in comparison with neat GO-C.R/Epoxy coated sample was evaluated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and salt spray test. Results reveal that UF-GO-C.R microcapsules in epoxy matrix showed the protection efficiency of 83.6 % after the immersion period of 7 days in 3.5 % NaCl solution which was relatively higher than those with neat GO-C.R. In addition, the coating loaded with UF-GO-C.R microcapsules showed improvement in the adhesion of epoxy coatings on the steel surface which was evident from the increase in peel strength (290 N) through peel-off adhesion test.
