Effect of pH on the controlled release of benzotriazole from halloysite clay nanotubes for corrosion protection of mild steel

Abstract

Due to the increase in severe consequences of mild steel corrosion, the development of coatings with improvement in corrosion-resistant properties has become very essential. In this work, benzotriazole (BTA) was encapsulated into halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) for inhibiting the corrosion of mild steel surface. The BTA-encapsulated HNT exhibits pH-responsive properties over a wide range of pH. It was found that a large amount of BTA was released at pH 3 (48 %), followed by pH 7 (30 %) and least in the case of pH 10 (20 %). At neutral pH, a rapid release of BTA was observed during initial exposure, reaching a steady-state later, with no significant release further. A salt immersion test was carried out after immersing mild steel (MS) substrates in BTA-HNT nanopowder dispersion in 3.5 wt% NaCl at different pH. SEM images and EDS maps confirmed that corrosion product formation on MS surface at pH 3 was significantly more with corrosion pits along with HNTs throughout the surface. At pH 7 and 10, corrosion pits were observed with very few halloysite nanotubes on the surface. An optimum amount of BTA is required to inhibit corrosion, excessive release may cause more Cl− ions to penetrate, leading to more corrosion. Electrochemical data also reveals the same trend, where the icorr value was maximum for pH 3 (1.09 × 10−5 A/cm2) > pH 7 (4.74 × 10−6 A/cm2) > pH 10 (3.43 × 10−6 A/cm2). Therefore, results suggest that BTA-encapsulated HNT can be efficiently incorporated into the coating matrix for their controlled release to provide corrosion protection under varying neutral and alkaline marine environments.