Chitosan (CS) hydrogel loaded with the well-known corrosion inhibitor 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) has been introduced into a composite coating to improve copper protection. This composite coating, which has both anticorrosion and antibacterial properties, was fabricated onto the surface of copper by combining a simple self-assembled monolayer technique with a sol-gel method. The anti-corrosion ability of the coating in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution was investigated by electrochemical methods including potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The protection efficiency of the coating is 97.70%, calculated on the basis of the corrosion current density. The stability and integrity of the composite coating were evaluated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS). The FESEM and EDS results suggest that the composite coating endows the copper substrate with antibacterial properties, as untreated bare copper underwent microbiologically influenced corrosion in the presence of sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB). This antibacterial feature was further confirmed by the SRB culture method. In a 3.5% NaCl solution and highly corrosive SRB culture media, the as-prepared CS based composite coating gave corrosion protection by exhibiting better barrier effects against the attack of aggressive environments. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.