Electrospinning Smart Polymeric Inhibitor Nanocontainer System for Copper Corrosion.

This work presents the electrochemical evaluation of a proposed copper corrosion protection coating acting as a smart system. This consists in nylon fibers acting as a diffusion barrier and inhibitor nanocontainer, under different conditions. These include nylon fibers/benzotriazole as inhibitor mixture using the electrospinning technique and/or painted with alkyd varnish. Also the varnish was applied over as a drop. Submicron diameter electrospun nylon 6,6 fiber nanocontainers were prepared from a polymeric solution containing benzotriazole (BTA) inhibitor at different concentrations. Cu samples were coated with the electrospun nylon fibers and a varnish drop as coating. Optical and SEM microscopy were used to characterize the nanocontainers. Cu samples immersed in a chloride ammonium sulfate solution were evaluated using electrochemical impedance and noise, for six weeks. Comparison was made with bare Cu and varnish coated samples. For long periods of immersion good corrosion protection performance was observed, for the Cu samples electrospun coated system.