Cationic graphene oxide nanosheets intercalated with polyaniline nanofibers: A promising candidate for simultaneous anticorrosion, antistatic, and antibacterial applications

Abstract Development of a coating with simultaneous anticorrosion, antistatic, and antibacterial properties is an important issue which has gained attention from both academic and industrial societies. Multifunctional Polyaniline /cationic reduced graphene oxide (P-RGO+) nanohybrid has been synthesized to induce these properties in waterborne polyurethane (WPU) coatings. The cationic reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (RGO+) were obtained through the in-situ reduction and functionalization with Dimethylformamide (DMF). The cationic reduced graphene oxide nanosheets were intercalated with Polyaniline nanofibers (PANI) to prepare a binary nanohybrid (P-RGO+). This nanohybrid was characterized through the FTIR, XRD, FESEM, and zeta potential techniques and its effect on anticorrosion, antistatic, antibacterial, and mechanical properties of the waterborne polyurethane coatings was studied. The results of Tafel and EIS plots exhibited that the modified coatings have an improved performance in term of protecting steel substrates against corrosion. Moreover, in the presence of the nanohybrid, the electrical surface resistance of the obtained coating reduced to reach 9.8 × 10+6 Ω/sq so that it can be counted as an antistatic coating. Moreover, utilizing P-RGO+ nanohybrid in the WPU dispersion not only improved antibacterial activity against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria but also caused the enhanced mechanical properties of the modified coating compared with the pristine coating.