Novel highly efficient ternary ZnO wrapped PPy-NTs/g-C3N4 nanocomposite as an epoxy coating for corrosion protection

The main goal of this study is to develop an epoxy coating coupled with an organic-inorganic hybrid nanocomposite that can be used as a corrosion-inhibiting pigment on carbon steel. Herein, polypyrrole nanotubes (PPy-NTs), polypyrrole nanotubes/g-C3N4 (PPy-NTs/g-C3N4) and novel nano-composite polypyrrole nanotubes/g-C3N4/ZnO (PGZ) were prepared by facile wet impregnation approach. The developed pigments were investigated using XRD, FTIR, FE-SEM equipped EDS. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and polarization measurements were used to assess the behavior of the prepared pigments on the anticorrosion performance of epoxy resin coatings. EIS experiments revealed that introducing nano-pigments to neat coatings enhanced the epoxy resin and charge transfer resistance. The anticorrosion performance of the three nano-pigments was assessed as follows: PGZ ˃ PPy-NTs/g-C3N4˃ PPy-NTs.