Corrosion protection aspects of electrochemically synthesized poly(o-anisidine-co-o-toluidine) coatings on copper

The poly(o-anisidine-co-o-toluidine) coatings were synthesized on copper substrates by electrochemical copolymerization of o-anisidine with o-toluidine using sodium salicylate as supporting electrolyte. These coatings were characterized by cyclic voltammetry, UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The formation of the copolymer with the mixture of monomers in the aqueous sodium salicylate solution was ascertained by a critical comparison of the results obtained with the polymerization of the individual monomers, o-anisidine and o-toluidine, respectively. The corrosion protection aspects of poly(o-anisidine-co-o-toluidine) coatings to copper was investigated in aqueous 3% NaCl solution by potentiodynamic polarization technique and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results of the potentiodynamic polarization measurements and EIS studies showed that the poly(o-anisidine-co-o-toluidine) coatings provided the effective corrosion protection to copper than that of respective homopolymers. The corrosion rate is observed to depend on the feed ratio of o-toluidine used for the synthesis of the copolymer coatings.