Anticorrosive Property of Water Soluble PANI/PVP/Na+-Cloisite Nanocomposite

Polyaniline (PANI) is one of the most promising conducting polymers but like many conducting polymers, PANI is difficult to process because it is soluble only in a limited number of organic solvents[1]. On the other hand, many applications require casting the polymers as the films or thin coatings; therefore, processability is a key issue. Over the last decade different synthetic routes have been developed to address the problems related with processability by dispersion polymerization.[2]. An earlier report states that as a water soluble polymer, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) is ineffective as a stabilizer in the oxidative polymerization of aqueous acidic aniline to polyaniline[3]. On the other hand application of nanoclay minerals like Na+-Cloisite in PANI coatings have gained much research interest because of increasing the barrier effect of polymer coating especially in corrosion protection of metals [4]. In our approach, PANI/Na+-Cloisite nanocomposite was synthesized in the presence of PVP by insitu polymerization and its anticorrosive properties on the mild steel was investigated.