Excellent protection of mild steel in sodium chloride solution for a substantial period of time using a hybrid nanocoating of poly vinyl alcohol and Titania

The production of eco-friendly hybrid sol–gel coatings for long term protection of metallic substrates from aggressive environments was one of the emerging areas, competing with conventional chromate and phosphate coatings. Herein, a nanocomposite has been synthesized from TiO₂ and PVA through a novel sol-gel route and the structure and morphology of the same was characterized using X-ray diffraction, FTIR, UV–Vis spectroscopy, FESEM with EDAX, and AFM studies. The flower-like structured composite offers excellent corrosion protection properties in NaCl solution of sea water salinity. Impedance and polarization studies were carried out to monitor the anticorrosion performance of the materials coating. This coating on mild steel offers 98% inhibition efficiency in NaCl. The influence of loading PVA on TiO₂ and its effect on corrosion efficiency have also been investigated. It is found that an optimum weight of 20 wt% PVA is required in the composite for beneficial corrosion resistance. 92% inhibition efficiency is registered by the coated MS in NaCl solution after 40 days of exposure and is quite encouraging compared to many of the recent reports. The Ti–O–Ti, and Fe-Ti-O linkage along with compactness and adherence of the material together contribute to better blocking of steel corrosion.