Corrosion control of aluminum surfaces by polypyrrole films: influence of electrolyte

Abstract

Polypyrrole (PPy) films were galvanostatically deposited on 99.9 wt. (%) aluminum electrodes from aqueous solutions containing each carboxylic acid: tartaric, oxalic or citric. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to analyze the morphology of the aluminum surfaces coated with the polymeric films. It was observed that the films deposited from tartaric acid medium presented higher homogeneity than those deposited from oxalic and citric acid. Furthermore, the corrosion protection of aluminum surfaces by PPy films was also investigated by potentiodynamic polarization experiments.

Keywords

• polypyrrole
• electrolyte
• aluminum
• corrosion