The effect of addition of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the corrosion resistance of conductive polymer coating (polyaniline) that coated aluminum bipolar plates in acidic environment inside the PEM fuel cell (0.1 M H2SO4) was investigated using electrical conductivity, polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the coating morphology. The results show that the addition of CNTs to polyaniline coating enhanced the electrical conductivity and the corrosion resistance of polyaniline polymer. The inhibition efficiency of polyaniline polymer increased with increasing CNTs concentration. The best inhibition was generally obtained at 0.8% CNTs concentration in the acidic medium. This was further confirmed by decreasing the oxygen and water permeability and increasing coating adhesion in the presence of CNTs. EIS measurements indicated that the incorporation of CNTs in coating increased both the charge transfer and pore resistances while reducing the double layer capacitance. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.