Electrochemical Strategies for the Strengthening of Polymer−Metal Interfaces

Abstract

Polymers have been widely used for the protection of metals against corrosion and for improving the performance of structural adhesive joints. In this contribution, the weakness and short‐term durability of these polymer−metal interactions and some common approaches for alleviating this problem are briefly reviewed. Among the existing techniques, electrochemical processes offer the advantage of controlled interfacial reactions. Promising results have been reported by Stratmann et al. and Lécayon et al., who have emphasized the interest and opportunity to create strong chemical bonds between the organic coating and the metallic substrate. Their work is discussed in this review, along with results recently obtained in our group.

Synthesis of well‐defined polymeric activated esters

“…87 Besides the electrochemical polymerization of pyrroles and thiophenes, there has been research efforts in electrografting arcylates and methacrylates from electrodes. 88, 89 Jerome et al showed that it is possible to induce reactivity to surfaces of conducting substrates by electrografting NHSA. 90 The resulting strongly adhering coating can act as a versatile reactive film to anchor a variety of amino functionalized molecules, such as catalysts, proteins or amino end-functionalized polymers.…”

Electrodeposition of mixed adherent thin films of poly(ethyl acrylate) and polyacrylonitrile onto nickel

“…Indeed, the deposition of a grafted polymer coating in a solvent for this polymer is not a nucleation-and-growth process: the chains while growing are solvated and thus must be fairly extended. We have shown that in DMF the grains' size increases with the monomer concentration to a greater extent than it is the case in ACN [22]. Thus, in contrast to what happens when films are prepared in 5 ACN, aggregation does come into play when the polymerization is already over, i.e., during precipitation of the non-grafted ends of the chains onto the surface upon washing with a non-solvent of the polymer (washing by DMF followed by ACN, see Exptl.…”

“…The complex refractive index of nickel was fixed at 2.11 + i 3.94 [17]. The refractive index for PAN [17] and PEA was 1.91 and 1.47, respectively [22].…”

Electrochemically produced responsive hydrogel films: Influence of added salt on thickness and morphology

“…Electrochemically induced polymerization is a particularly flexible and simple way to produce hydrogel coatings [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Polymerization is triggered by the decomposition of an electro-active initiator at the cathode.…”