Corrosion protection coating containing polyaniline glass flake composite for steel

Corrosion protection of steel by glass flake (GF) containing coatings is widely used in marine atmosphere. Even though, the coatings containing glass flake are highly corrosion resistant, their performance is decreased due to the presence of pinholes and coating defects. It is well established that polyaniline containing coating is able to protect the pinhole defects in the coatings due to passivating ability of polyaniline. Hence a study has been made on the corrosion protection ability of steel using polyaniline-glass flake composite containing coating with 10% loading of glass flake in epoxy binder. The polyaniline glass flake composite (PGFC) was synthesized by chemical oxidation of aniline by ammonium persulphate in presence of glass flake. The corrosion protection ability of GF and PGFC containing coating on steel was found out by salt spray test and EIS test in 3% NaCl. In both the tests, the resistance value of the PGFC containing coating has remained at 10⁸-10⁹ Ω cm² where as for the GF containing coating, the resistance values decreased to 10⁵ Ω cm². The enhanced corrosion protection ability of the PGFC containing coating is due to the passivation ability of the polyaniline present in the coating.