Corrosion protection of mild steel by nano-colloidal polyaniline/nanodiamond composite coating in NaCl solution

The polyaniline/nanodiamond (PANI/ND) nanocomposite coating was synthesized on mild steel via electrochemical polymerization using cyclic voltammetry technique. The ultrasonic irradiation was used for effectively dispersing ND particles in electropolymerization solution. The prepared nanocomposite films were found to be nano-colloidal, and very adherent with low porosity. X-ray diffraction and FTIR techniques confirmed the intercalation of the nanoparticles in PANI matrix. The corrosion performance of the coatings was investigated in 3.5% NaCl solution by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), polarization, and salt spray methods. The obtained results showed that the presence of ND particles significantly enhanced the corrosion protection performance of the PANI films in corrosive medium. EIS and polarization measurements indicated that the coating resistance and corrosion resistance values for the PANI/ND nanocomposite coating were much higher than that of pure PANI-coated electrode. Also, the results obtained revealed that the protection efficiency of PANI/ND-coated mild steel is achieved about 90% after 3 days. The porosity in PANI/ND nanocomposite coating is almost 18 times lower than that of the PANI coating.