Abstract
In this study, nano-sized diamond particles (ND) were functionalized in two consecutive stages. First, dry thermal oxidation was employed to obtain carboxylated ND. In the next step, carboxylated ND was properly surface modified through wet chemistry to acquire aminated-ND (ND-NH2). Then, polyaniline (PANI) was synthesized in the presence of aminated-ND particles at a broad concentration from 1 wt% to 70 wt% to obtain PANI/ND hybrid nanostructures. The chemical structure, morphology, and thermal stability of nanoparticles were comprehensively characterized by different techniques such as FT-IR, UV–visible, TGA, XRD, FESEM, and TEM. It was observed that the morphology of PANI/ND nanostructures varied from nanotube at low concentration of ND to aggregated NDs covered by PANI at high concentration of NDs, namely at 70 wt%. Eventually, the hybrid PANI/ND nanoparticles were incorporated into epoxy coatings in order to improve the corrosion protection performance. The anti-corrosion properties of the coatings were examined carefully by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results indicated that the morphology of PANI/ND nanohybrid structure dominated greatly the corrosion protection behavior of epoxy coating. Accordingly, it was revealed that PANI/ND5%-epoxy nanocomposite showed improved and synergistic corrosion resistance compared to neat epoxy, ND-epoxy, PANI-epoxy and even PANI/ND50%-epoxy nanocomposites due to better anodic protection as well as greater barrier performance.
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