Experimental and Theoretical Study on Corrosion Inhibition of Mild Steel in Oilfield Formation Water Using Some Schiff Base Metal Complexes

Abstract

First, in this study, the inhibition efficiencies of metal complexes with Cu(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) of STSC ligand for corrosion control of mild steel in oilfield formation water were investigated. The IEs for a mixture of 500 ppm STSC and 5 ppm metal ion (Cu+2, Ni+2, Zn+2) were found to be 88.77, 87.96 and 85.13 %, respectively. The results were obtained from the electrochemical techniques such as open circuit potential, linear and tafel polarization methods. The polarization studies have showed that all used Schiff base metal complexes are anodic inhibitors. The protective film has been analyzed by FTIR technique. Also, to detect the presence of the iron-inhibitor complex, UV-Visible spectral analysis technique was used. The inhibitive effect was attributed to the formation of insoluble complex adsorbed on the mild steel surface and the adsorption process follows Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The surface morphology has been analyzed by SEM. Secondly, the computational studies of the ligand and its metal complexes were performed using DFT (B3LYP) method with the 6-311G** basis set. Finally, it is found that the experimental results were closely related to theoretical ones. Keywords: Mild steel, Schiff Base metal complexes, Oilfield formation water, Surface analyses, Corrosion inhibition, HOMO-LUMO