Synthesis of Silica/Polypyrrole Nanocomposites and Application in Corrosion Protection of Carbon Steel.

Silica/polypyrrole nanocomposites without dopant (SiO2/PPy) and with oxalate dopant (SiO2/PPyOx) were synthesized using polymerization of pyrrole in the presence of nano SiO2. Synthesized SiO2/PPy and SiO2/PPyOx were characterized by FTIR, SEM, TEM and EDX and their electrical conductivities were determined by CV method through the two-point-electrode without electrolyte. The corrosion protection performance of polyvinylbutyral (PVB) coatings containing SiO2/PPyOx was evaluated and compared with that of pure PVB coatings and of PVB coatings containing SiO2/PPy by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and adhesion measurement. The results show that electrical conductivities of SiO2/PPy and SiO2/PPyOx were 0.181 and 0.109 S/cm, respectively. The ratio of PPy on SiO2 in SiO2/PPy and SiO2/PPyOx composites was 0.77/1 and the ratio of oxalate on PPy in SiO2/PPyOx composite was 1.24/1. SiO2/PPy and SiO2/PPyOx improved corrosion resistance and adhesion of PVB coatings. The presence of oxalate in SiO2/PPyOx significantly enhanced the effect of SiO2/PPy on the protection performance of PVB coatings.

Electrodeposition and Characterization of Hydroxyapatite on TiN/316LSS.

The deposition of TiN on stainless steel substrates may improve the stability and compatibility of this material with bone, which may be advantageously exploited for the elaboration of advanced pros- thetic devices. In this work, TiN-coated 316LSS (by way of DC magnetron sputtering) was used as a starting material for investigating the electrochemical post-deposition of hydroxyapatite (HAp) which has a composition close to that of bone. Electrodeposition was carried out starting from an aqueous medium containing solubilized Ca(NO3)2 and NH4H2PO4 in the presence of H2O2. We report the influence of experimental conditions on the morphology of the obtained HAp coating on TiN/316LSS. The effect of applied potential, temperature, H2O2 concentration, pH and duration of reaction were thoroughly discussed on the basis of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) results. This method appears advantageous for producing HAp-coated implant materials.

Boron doped diamond microelectrodes arrays for electrochemical detection in HPLC.

Boron doped diamond microelectrodes arrays (MEA) have been prepared in order to be used as new amperometric sensors in electrochemical cells for HPLC detectors. The following parameters were studied: number and diameter (15-40 µm) of the electrodes, distance between them (50-240 µm), and effect of the flow rate (0.1-3 mL/min). It was thus possible to find the optimum value of the parameters which give a good signal/noise ratio in the chronoamperometric responses, with a size of the electrochemical sensors as small as possible.