Evaluation of synthesized polyaniline nanofibres as corrosion protection film coating on copper substrate by electrophoretic deposition

In this current paper, we report the use of inexpensive, simple electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique in developing polyaniline (PANI) aqueous colloidal suspension coating on copper (Cu) substrate. Polyaniline nanoparticle films were deposited electrophoretically on the surface of copper sheet electrode. A colloidal suspension with high stability was produced by a liquid polyaniline in the presence of formic acid and acetonitrile as electrolyte for the EPD process. The suspension of the PANI was characterized by measuring the zeta potential of the suspension using zeta-sizer analyser. The PANI coating was used as barrier for corrosion protection of the Cu sheet. Operating parameters such as operating time, applied voltage, and the concentration were used with deposition at the cathode. Characterization such as XRD, SEM, FT-IR, and UV-Vis was carried out, and the corrosion protection offered by the PANI on the Cu surface was examined using potentiodynamic (Tafel) polarization in 3.5% NaCl solution at room temperature. As a result, the optimum parameters for obtaining a homogenous coating on the Cu sheet were attained at the voltage of 15 V and deposition time of 180 s with 50 mg/mL PANI concentration. The attained results indicated inhibition efficiency for PANI deposit of 92.92% indicating protection against corrosion.