Polymer Film Coatings on Metal Electrodes Through Electroinitiated Polymerization and Their Evaluation

Adherent films of polymers on different metal surfaces are formed by the electroinitiated polymerization of acrylonitrile alone and of mixtures of acrylonitrile and acrylic acid in 0.05N H2SO4 aqueous solution. Five different metals--Al, Ni, Cu, stainless steel and steel--are used as the cathodes for purposes of the coatings while Pt plate is the anode in each case. Corrosion tests were performed to compare the corrosion resistance of coated and uncoated metals in various corrosive solutions, through both the weight-loss and the electrochemical methods. It is observed that good and uniform coatings always reduce the corrosion rate of the metals. Porous coatings are seen to accelerate the corrosion rate of the support metals (for example, coated Al). 23 ref.--AA.