Anti-Corrosion Characteristics of Steel Structures with Polyaniline Anti-Corrosive Coatings

In preparative anti-corrosive coating experiments, polyaniline was obtained by reacting an oxidizing agent with the monomer aniline. Further, the primer coating was prepared using a variety of widely-used materials such as urethane resin. For the top coating, epoxy resin and acrylic urethane resin were used. Characteristics of the coatings were assessed according to KS and ASTM specifications, and the structure of the polyaniline was characterized using FT-IR and TGA. For analysis of anti-corrosive properties in salt-spray experiments, measurements of the oxidation state of iron and surface atomic analysis were conducted using XPS and SEM-EDX. Unlike general anti-corrosive coatings which exhibit anti-corrosive effects only as a primer coating, the anti-corrosive coatings using polyaniline as the anti-corrosive pigment showed a marked synergistic effect with the top coatings. In other words, the top coatings not only produce a fine view effect, but also increase, through interaction with the primer coatings, the resistance to diffusion of corrosive factors from the external environment. It was also found that, unlike the heavy metal oxide-forming layer of the passive barrier alone, the polyaniline anti-corrosive pigment oxidized iron at the interface with the iron substrate to form a passive barrier in the oxidic layer, and itself formed a potential barrier layer with anti-corrosive factors from the external environment. Although the passive layer was damaged, the damaged area did not become completely oxidized iron; on the contrary, it showed a tendency to reduction. This can be interpreted such that a passive layer is formed again on the damaged area, and that at the same time there is a tendency to self-healing.