Corrosion Resistance of Mild Steel Coated with Phthalimide-Functionalized Polybenzoxazines

Herein, we synthesized two new phthalimide-functionalized benzoxazine monomers, pPP-BZ and oPP-BZ, through Mannich reactions of 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)isoindoline-1,3-dione (pPP) and 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)isoindoline-1,3-dione (oPP), respectively, with p-toluidine and paraformaldehyde. The structures of these two monomers were confirmed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We used differential scanning calorimetry, FTIR spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis to study the polymerization behavior and thermal stability of the monomers and their corresponding polybenzoxazines. Poly(pPP-BZ) and poly(oPP-BZ) were formed on mild steel (MS) through spin-coating and subsequent thermal curing polymerization. We used various corrosion testing methods to examine the effect of the curing temperature on the corrosion resistance of the coated MS samples in 3.5 wt.% aqueous solution of NaCl. Among our tested systems, the corrosion rate reached a low of 2.78 µm·Y−1 for the MS coated with poly(pPP-BZ)180 (i.e., the coating that had been cured at 180 °C); this value is much lower than that (4.8 µm·Y−1) reported for a maleimide-based benzoxazine compound (MI-Bz)/33 wt.% ACAT (amine-capped aniline trimer) blend. Thus, the incorporation of the imide functional group into the PBZ coatings is an effective strategy for affording high-performance corrosion resistance.