AbstractThe electrochemical behaviours of a brass alloy in 0.1 M nitric acid, including the hyamine inhibitor with concentrations between 2.5 × 10−4 M and 1.0 × 10−5 M, were studied. For this purpose, potentiodynamic polarisation, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), linear polarisation resistance (LPR) techniques, and flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) were utilised. The inhibitor molecules adsorbed on the brass surface were calculated to be in good agreement with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and the standard free enthalpy of adsorption (ΔG ads∘). Hyamine effectively improved the corrosion inhibition of brass and acted as a mixed-type inhibitor on alloy surfaces. The surface morphology of the alloy was also clarified by optical microscopic and SEM techniques. A theoretical study of the corrosion inhibition efficiency of hyamine molecule was carried out using density functional theory (DFT) at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) basis set level.