CORROSION INHIBITION OF CuNi10Fe ALLOY WITH PHENOLIC ACIDS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficiency of two phenolic acids, namely p-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA) and protocatechuic acid (PCA), as corrosion inhibitors for CuNi10Fe alloy in a 0.5 mol dm−3 NaCl solution. In these investigations, open circuit potential measurements, potentiodynamic polarization measurements, and the linear polarization method have been used. It was found that both phenolic acids had similar corrosion inhibition effects on the CuNi10Fe alloy dissolution. The inhibition efficiency (IE) increased with increase in inhibitor concentration. The polarization shows that both compounds functioned as cathodic corrosion inhibitors by adsorption on the surface of CuNi10Fe alloy according to the Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The numerical values of free energies of adsorption indicate physical adsorption of the compounds on the electrode surface. DFT-based quantum chemical computations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations revealed identical electronic and adsorption structures for both HBA and PCA, which could account for the similarities in the experimentally observed inhibiting effects.