Synthesis, characterization and application of ferrochrome slag/polyaniline nanocomposite as corrosion protection coatings for carbon steel

The corrosion protection ability of waste ferrochrome slag (FeCr-slag) material was investigated. FeCr-slag has been milled for 4 hours in order to obtain nanostructured material. As a nanomaterial, this compound was used as prepared as well as a nanocomposite with polyaniline. The nanocomposites were prepared by in-situ polymerization technique. The prepared materials were characterized by FTIR, XRD and SEM. The anticorrosion performance of FeCr-slag material, polyaniline (PANI) and a nanocomposite of FeCr-slag material with polyaniline was evaluated by incorporating these pigments in a commercial epoxy paint system. The prepared coatings were investigated for their anticorrosion ability by exposure to corrosive media in salt spray chamber as well as the electrochemical potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The results show that the nanocomposite pigments performed better, followed by FeCr-slag material and followed by PANI respectively. Modification of the FeCr-slag material with PANI has significantly improved the anticorrosion properties of the paint system used.