Corrosion protection properties of polypyrrole electropolymerized onto steel in the presence of salicylate

The corrosion performance of a polypyrrole coating constituted by hollow rectangular microtubes was monitored in chloride solutions using open circuit potential measurements, potentiostatic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The coating was electrosynthesized onto 316 L stainless steel from a salicylate solution and it provided a very good corrosion resistance to the substrate. It was found that polypyrrole films with granular morphology electrodeposited from a salicylate solution with lower concentration behave better in terms of protective behavior. In order to improve the corrosion protection imparted by the polypyrrole coating formed by the microtubes a system of two layers was electrodeposited, the first one consisted of polypyrrole with a granular morphology and the second one, on the top, was constituted by the microtubes. This bilayered system exhibited an excellent protective behavior during considerably long immersion time. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.