CAEE Seminar: Development of an Intrinsically Conducting Polymer Based Coating System for Corrosion Protection of Structural Steels

The Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering department will be hosting a seminar featuring Qifeng Yu, a Ph.D. candidate at Armour College of Engineering. The topic of the seminar will be the Development of an Intrinsically Conducting Polymer-Based Coating System for Corrosion Protection of Structural Steel.

Abstract

Structural steels under general service conditions are normally subject to corrosion which can cause severe material and structural degradations if not well attended. Coatings have been the primary strategy for protecting steels from corrosion, and the most commonly used coating today is a three-layer coating system, which relies primarily on their barrier function, with the primer often enabled to provide additional sacrificial protection. Conventional three-layer coating systems, however, all have a limited service life, usually 20-30 years. Under normal service conditions, steel structures such as bridges and pipelines have a life expectancy of 50-plus years. Therefore, a more durable coating should be developed for a service life comparable to steel structures. A new two-layer coating system based on a primer made of a properly doped π-conjugated polymer (i.e., polyaniline) was developed in our research laboratory. The techniques of Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (SKPFM) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) were used to evaluate the anti-corrosion capability of the two-layer coating system. Three ASTM standard tests, B117 (Salt Spray Test), D5894 (Cyclic Weathering Exposure Test), and D4541 Pull-Off Strength Test are conducted to evaluate the system’s long-term corrosion durability in accelerated corrosive environments. The laboratory test results indicated that the two-layer coating system has high anti-corrosion durability and significantly extended service life.