A polyaniline based intrinsically conducting coating for corrosion protection of structural steels

Among the various corrosion protection strategies for structural steels, coating techniques provide the most cost-effective protection and have been used as the primary mode of corrosion protection. Existing coating techniques however have been used mainly for their barrier capability and therefore all have a limited service life due to oxidation aging, electrolytic degradation, or various inadvertent defects and flaws occurred in and after coating applications. This work investigated the anti-corrosion potential of a π-conjugated polymer-polyaniline (PANi), which was doped into an intrinsically conducting polymer and then included in a two-layer coating system as a primer layer. To achieve a long service life, the primer layer was made by mixing the conductive PANi in a waterborne poly-vinyl butyral solution to provide strong adhesion to steel surface, and then topcoated with a layer of elastomer-modified polyethylene to obtain extra mechanical and barrier protections. Two ASTM standard tests were conducted to evaluate the corrosion durability and tensile adhesion of the two-layer system, in which the system demonstrated superior performance. The Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (SKPFM) was used to provide the microscopic evidences for the outstanding performance.