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In recent years, numerous innovative approaches have emerged to enhance the corrosion resistance of materials. This study investigates the effect of enhancing mild steel corrosion through the incorporation of unzipped multiwalled carbon nanotube oxides (UMCNO) into epoxy resin. Additionally, the effect of various operating parameters, such as temperature, UMCNO concentration, salt concentration, duration of exposure, and coating thickness, have also been considered in the study. The Box–Behnken method was used for experimental design and correlation of corrosion rate with various operating parameters, followed by analysis of variance of both five‐ and three‐parameter models. Notably, despite variations in temperature and salt concentration, the corrosion rate remained negligible, confirming its suitability in various marine conditions. Furthermore, it was observed that the corrosion rate of mild steel coated with epoxy decreased with the addition of UMCNO. A corrosion rate of 0.182 mpy was observed for epoxy resin incorporated with 0.5 % UMCNO over a 14‐day period, which is lower compared to other conditions. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization analysis showed higher corrosion‐resistant properties in epoxy coating incorporated with UMCNO. In addition, it was evident from the contact angle measurement that the corrosion rate of mild steel was highly dependent on the concentration of UMCNO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Synthesized PCMs with unzipped multiwalled carbon nanotube oxides (UMCNOs) and PEG. • Thermal conductivity enhanced by 111.7 % with 6 wt% UMCNOs addition. • Heat storage and release times reduced up to 40 % and 30 %, respectively. • Thermally and chemically reliable for over 100 thermal cycles. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a phase change material (PCM) is being explored for latent heat energy storage systems due to its high thermal storage capacity. In the current study, PCM composites were synthesized with different mass fractions of unzipped multiwalled carbon nanotube oxides (UMCNOs) in PEG by melt mixing method. The influence of UMCNOs loading on the thermal conductivity (TC), phase change properties such as temperatures and latent heats of melting and solidifying, thermal energy storage and release rates were investigated. At a loading of 6 mass% of UMCNOs, the TC of the prepared PCM composite increased by 2.1 times as compared to that of pure PEG (0.21 W/m-K). Differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed that as the concentration of UMCNOs increased, there was a slight decrease in the melting temperature. Additionally, the latent heats of melting were found to be reduced by 1.11–9.46 % with the addition of 0.5–6 mass% UMCNOs. Further, the thermal energy storage and release rates were improved with the addition of UMCNOs in PCM composites. In addition, there was negligible change in phase change properties after 100 melting and solidifying cycles of PCM composite, indicating the great prospects for the latent heat energy storage application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]