Abstract
It is known that if unused drugs are improperly disposed, they can pollute the environment. Furthermore, researchers are still trying to find an environmentally friendly corrosion inhibitor. These factors lead to the possible application of unused pharmaceutical compounds as corrosion inhibitors. The feasibility of an anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic drug, ibuprofen, was evaluated as a potential copper corrosion inhibitor in synthetic acid rain solution. This investigation was performed by applying electrochemical and weight loss measurements and quantum chemical calculations. The results obtained by these techniques revealed the ability of ibuprofen to protect copper from corrosion. The inhibition efficiency of ibuprofen rises with increase in its concentration and can reach a value of 97.3%. The results of surface analysis of treated coupons by scanning electron microscopy and theoretical calculations are consistent with the experimental results.
Highlights
Several metals and alloys such as copper, brass, aluminum, tin and steel are used in various industrial fields
At the beginning of measurement in the blank solution, the open circuit potential (OCP) is less significantly shifted to more negative values compared with the trends in the presence of ibuprofen
This shift is more obvious with increase in the inhibitor concentration and could be explained by the adsorption of inhibitors on the active corrosion sites of the copper surface[67]
Summary
Several metals and alloys such as copper, brass, aluminum, tin and steel are used in various industrial fields. Various research groups[52,53,54,55,56] concluded that pharmaceutical industries are responsible for disposing expired or unused drugs into the environment Having this in mind, unused drugs should be degraded by using an adequate technique like photochemical process[57,58], biodegradation process[59,60], adsorption[61] and nanofiltration www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Ibuprofen (2-(p-isobuthylphenyl) propionic acid) is an anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic drug largely used in the treatment of muscle and head pain, inflammation in rheumatic disease and for the treatment of fever[65] With this in mind, it is interesting to examine the ability of expired ibuprofen to protect copper from corrosion in synthetic acid rain solution
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