Synthesis, scale and corrosion inhibition evaluation and mechanism of 2-aminobenzimidazole modified polyaspartic acid

Abstract

With the growing public concern for environmental preservation, this work employs environmentally friendly polyaspartic acid (PASP) as the main chain, to develop a green and efficient dual-function inhibitor with scale and corrosion inhibition. The new inhibitor PASP-2-A was synthesized by grafting 2-amino-benzimidazole (2-A) containing nitrogen heterocyclic into polysuccinimide under alkaline conditions. The corrosion inhibition of carbon steel and brass was determined by static test, polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). It can be found that PASP-2-A had better scale inhibition performance than PASP under different conditions. The addition of 5 mg·L−1 PASP-2-A can almost 100% prevent the formation of CaCO3 scale. Molecular dynamics simulation results showed that PASP-2-A significantly destroys the crystal structure of CaCO3 scale due to the coordination between PASP-2-A and Ca2+ groups. The modified PASP scale inhibitor can prevent the growth of calcite (110) and (104) crystal faces, regulate the transformation of CaCO3 from stable calcite to more soluble spherical vaterite, making it less deposit. The electrochemical test results showed that the corrosion inhibition of PASP-2-A is greatly improved compared with PASP, and the corrosion inhibition of Q235 carbon steel increased about 40% at the dosage of 200 ppm. The corrosion inhibition efficiency of H62 brass in 3.5 wt% NaCl was 97.97% with 300 ppm PASP-2-A. Notably, due to its degradable nature, low toxicity, and affordability, PASP-2-A serves as an excellent inhibitor, exhibiting remarkable performance in both scale inhibition and corrosion inhibition. Consequently, it presents a promising avenue for further advancements in modified PASP.