Poly (3-aminobenzoic acid) @ MWCNTs hybrid conducting nanocomposite: preparation, characterization, and application as a coating for copper corrosion protection

Nowadays, corrosion is a widely observed phenomenon in metal and one of the most important reasons of degradation in industrial parts. As a result, developing and applying the methods to reduce corrosion costs in industry is essential. In this research, emulsion polymerization route was used to prepare poly (3-aminobenzoic acid) @ multi-walled carbon nanotubes (P3ABA@MWCNTs) hybrid conducting nanocomposite film. Different techniques like Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to evaluate structure and morphology of resultant materials. P3ABA@MWCNTs hybrid conducting nanocomposite demonstrated an improvement in the crystallinity as well as thermal stability. In this literature for the first time, P3ABA and P3ABA@MWCNTs hybrid conducting nanocomposite films were used as a coating for corrosion protection of copper metal. The corrosion inhibition applicability of the P3ABA and P3ABA@MWCNTs hybrid conducting nanocomposite films on copper immersed in salt solution (3.5 wt.%) was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopic (EIS), and open circuit potential (OCP) measurements. The results showed that the presence of MWCNTs in P3ABA matrix considerably improved the corrosion inhibition efficiency of copper metal where corrosion potential (E-corr) and corrosion current density (I-corr) were -103mV and 0.562Acm(-2), respectively. The good anti-corrosion activity of P3ABA@MWCNTs hybrid nanocomposite was most likely due to physical barrier effect, and anodic protection performance of P3ABA together enhances the overall compactness of the MWCNTs.