Abstract
The synergistic effects of formaldehyde and an alcoholic extract of plant leaves have been studied by weight loss measurements at temperatures up to 363 K using various concentration ratios of the two inhibitors to protect N80 steel against corrosion in 15% hydrochloric acid. The inhibition efficiency was found to decrease with increasing temperature for all except two of the various concentration ratios that were studied. After identifying these two most promising mixtures, their corrosion prevention effects for N80 steel in hydrochloric acid were studied in more detail by weight loss and potentiostatic polarisation measurements. The corrosion rate of the steel was decreased by the presence of small additions of the inhibitors. The extent of decrease was found to depend on the nature of the corrosion inhibitor and its concentration. The inhibition efficiencies of the two plant based inhibitor mixtures were compared with those of two commercially available oil industry corrosion inhibitors. In all cases the adsorption of the inhibitors on the steel appeared to follow the Frumkin or Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The inhibition efficiencies of the two plant based inhibitors and the two commercial inhibitors were evaluated at a concentration level of 0.8% for temperatures in the range 303 K to 363 K) and exposure times of between 1 h and 24 h. Thermodynamic parameters including the free energy of adsorption, activation energy, enthalpy and entropy were calculated in both the absence and presence of inhibitors. Potentiostatic polarisation tests have revealed that inhibitors are primarily of the anodic type.
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