Enhancement of corrosion protection of mild steel by chitosan/ZnO nanoparticle composite membranes

The development of active corrosion protection systems for metallic substrates is an issue of prime importance for many industrial applications. Nanostructured chitosan/ZnO nanoparticle films were coated on mild steel by sal gel process, dip coating technique. Sol gel protective coatings have shown excellent chemical stability, oxidation control and enhanced corrosion resistance for metal substrates. Further, the sal gel method is an environmentally friendly technique of surface protection which has traditionally been used for increasing corrosion resistance of metals. Films so formed were characterized by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy (UV-vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDX). Corrosion protection behavior of these coated mild steel substrates in 0.1 N HCl solutions was evaluated by potentiodynamic polarisation studies (Tafel), linear polarisation studies (LPR), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy studies (EIS). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.