Corrosion protection using electronic polymers

The corrosion of steel is a huge problem in today's society, causing losses in excess of 100 billion dollars annually world wide. The use of electronic, i.e. conjugated polymers as corrosion protecting coatings is presently studied by several groups around the world in the hope of providing better, cheaper protection that is also more environmentally friendly than the present techniques for corrosion prevention of steel.

Recent Advances

Our group is studying the corrosion protecting capabilities of emeraldine base polyaniline (PANI-EB) as well as derivatives thereof, both polymers and oligomers. The organic films can be applied on the surface to be protected, but also on the backside of the sample, a so called undercoating. 
The research is carried out by exposing steel samples, with and without protective coatings, to corrosive environments and then the resulting oxide growth is studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy depth profiling. Also, the charge transfer between the protective coatings and the steel samples is studied using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. The materials studied so far have proven to provide excellent protection for both steel and pure iron as well as yielding large values of throwing power (>1.5 cm) as can be seen in Fig. 1. Here are shown polished CRS samples exposed to 80 C for 48 hours in a humid environment. I and II: Back and top surfaces of CRS samples with 50% of back surface covered by EB; III: unprotected cold rolled steel (control samples). The research is now being extended to include the protection of aluminum.

Publications

M. Fahlman, X. Crispin, H. Guan, S. Li, J.A.O. Smallfield, Y. Wei, and A.J. Epstein, Polyaniline-Metal Interfaces: Implications on Corrosion Protection of Steel and Aluminium Alloys, Polymer Preprints 41 (2), xxx-xxx (2000).

A.J. Epstein, H. Guan, J.A.O. Smallfield, and M. Fahlman, Corrosion Protection of Aluminum and Iron Alloys Using Polyanilines, Proceedings, Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC 99, Volume 2), 2232-2234 (1999).

A.J. Epstein, J.A.O. Smallfield, H. Guan, and M. Fahlman, Corrosion Protection of Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys by Polyanilines:  A Potentiodynamic and Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study, Synthetic Metals 102, 1374-1376 (1999).

M. Fahlman, H. Guan, J.A.O. Smallfield, and A.J. Epstein, The Iron/Polyaniline Interface and Its Effect on Corrosion Protection of Iron and Cold Rolled Steel in Aqueous and Salt Environments, Proceedings, Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC 98, Volume 2), 1238-1242 (1998).

M. Fahlman, J.A.O. Smallfield, and A.J. Epstein, Corrosion Protection of Iron/Steel by Polyanilines:  A Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study, Proc. Soc. of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC 1997),  Toronto, Ontario, April 27-May 2, 1997, 1330-1333 (1997).

M. Fahlman, S. Jasty, and A.J. Epstein, Corrosion Protection of Iron/Steel by Emeraldine Base Polyaniline:  An X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study, Synthetic Metals 85, 1323-1326 (1997).

S. Jasty and A.J. Epstein, Corrosion Prevention Capability of Polyaniline (Emeraldine Base and Salt):  An XPS Study,  Polymeric Material Science & Engineering 72, 565-566 (1995).

Created by Mats Fahlman and Darren Gebler. Maintained by John Rohrbacher. Last updated 5/23/00.

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