Design of hybrid clay/ polypyrrole decorated with silver and zinc oxide nanoparticles for anticorrosive and antibacterial applications

Abstract

In this work, a novel and cost-effective bentonite intercalated with polypyrrole Zinc oxide-silver nanocomposite (B-PPy/ZnO) hybrid material was prepared via in situ photopolymerization of pyrrole in the presence of silanized bentonite and zinc oxide nanoparticles and using silver nitrate as an initiator. The as-prepared Bentonite-polypyrrole/ZnO hybrid material was found to be black, exfoliated with a polypyrrole-rich surface decorated with ZnO and silver nanoparticles in a metallic state. We evaluated the propensity of the prepared hybrid material as an eco-friendly, anticorrosive, and antibacterial coating for carbon steel. The corrosion resistance efficiency study of B-PPy/ZnO composite incorporated with the epoxy matrix was carried out in a 3.5 % NaCl solution. B-PPy/ZnO 4 wt% composite coating on carbon steel was observed to exhibit best corrosion protection property, with High charge transfer resistance were value (9.85 MΩ cm−2) compared to 0.213 MΩ cm-2 in the presence of pure epoxy. Cytotoxicity assay was carried out on an A549 epithelial cell line. Moreover, B-PPy/ZnO showed a reduction in Escherichia coli bacterial growth by ∼86 % with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.03 mg ml-1. The results obtained herein will open new routes to the preparation of efficient ecofriendly anticorrosion and antibacterial coatings.