A soluble terpolymer of aniline (AN), 2-pyridylamine (PA) and 2,3-xylidine (XY), poly(AN-co-PA-co-XY) and its nanocomposite with ZnO nanoparticles namely, poly(AN-co-PA-co-XY)/ZnO were synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization employing ammonium persulfate as an oxidant. Nanocomposites of homopolymers, polyaniline/ZnO, poly(XY)/ZnO and poly(PA)/ZnO were also synthesized by following similar synthesis route. FT1R, XRD and SEM techniques were used to characterize the synthesized compounds. The synthesized compounds were chemically deposited on mild steel specimens by solvent evaporation method using N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as solvent and 10% epoxy resin (by weight) as binder. Anticorrosive properties of homopolymer nanocomposites, terpolymer and its nanocomposite coatings were studied in 0.1 M HCl by subjecting them to various corrosion tests which includes: free corrosion potential measurement (OCP), weight loss measurements, potentiodynamic polarization, and AC impedance technique. The surface morphology of the corroded and uncorroded coated steel specimens was evaluated using SEM. The corrosion protection performance of terpolymer nanocomposite coating was compared to the terpolymer and individual homopolymers nanocomposites coatings after 30 days immersion in corrosive medium. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.