Carbon dots modified PANI nanocomposites in acrylic resin coatings for enhancing the anticorrosion and antifouling properties

Abstract Zero‐dimensional nitrogen‐doped carbon dots (N‐CDs) have been proved effective when introduced into the polymerization system of aniline as the hard template to synthesis small‐sized, monodisperse and highly conductive N‐CDs/PANI (N‐CDs/PANI) nanocomposites, which were then added into acrylic (AC) resin to produce coatings with excellent corrosion resistance and antifouling performances in this paper. Compared with the PANI, the N‐CDs/PANI did show remarkably improved anticorrosion and antifouling properties. The protection efficiency of the AC resin coating was increased by 5 times and to 57.3% with the addition of the N‐CDs/PANI, which is higher than that of the AC resin coating, about 37.0%, with the addition of the PANI. In addition, the AC resin coating containing N‐CDs/PANI exhibited additional antifouling properties with an algae inhibition rate of about 24.6%, since the redox property of the carbon dots could destroy the photosynthesis of microorganisms such as Chlorella. Furthermore, because that the N‐CDs/PANI had better dispersibility than PANI and could be more uniformly dispersed in the AC resin, the adhesion of the N‐CDs/PANI‐AC coating was better than that of the PANI‐AC coating.