Abstract
Corrosion treatment is an economic, environmental and health safety issue. More widely used on an industrial scale, coating protection consists in isolating the metal from the aggressive medium by an adherent, continuous and impermeable layer. They must have three major properties: 1) be strongly adherent to the metallic substrate, 2) have good barrier properties to limit the penetration of water and aggressive species and 3) provide a role in inhibiting corrosion. However, the protection of metal surfaces by current techniques generates significant pollution due to the use of chromates. The use of bio-based and soluble polymers in aqueous media would be a challenge and would contribute to preserving the environment. Polysaccharides such as chitosan are biodegradable and environmentally friendly macromolecules with anticorrosive properties and are therefore possible alternatives. These theses focus on the development of anticorrosion coatings based on chitosan. Chitosan has two weak points for use as a coating against corrosion: 1) insufficient adhesion on the surface of the materials and 2) hydrophilicity. As a result, chitosan has been chemically modified to increase its adhesion and barrier properties. In order to improve its adhesion on metal substrates, phosphonic acid groups have been added via the Kabachnik-Fields reaction on chitosan. The development of a chitosan with catechol functions was also discussed. Initially, the modified chitosan was tested and characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) as a corrosion inhibitor and coatings based on the same chitosan were made and their corrosion protection evaluated. Two approaches of coating elaborations were tested: dip-coating and Layer-by-Layer (LbL). Different ways of functionalizing chitosan have also been presented to increase the barrier properties of the coating. Phthaloylation chemistry of chitosan was described and hydrophobic chain grafting was studied.