Recent Advances in the Investigation of Corrosion Inhibitors

Abstract

The use of inhibitors is one of the most practical and widely used methods to protect metal against corrosion, especially in acid media like HCl, H2SO4, etc. [1-6]. Literature survey reveals that organic compounds with functional groups containing heteroatoms like nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur atoms, triple or conjugated double bonds, or aromatic rings in their structure act as efficient corrosion inhibitors for metals in acid solution [7-8]. The major industries using corrosion inhibitors are the chemical industry, the oil and gas exploration industry, the petroleum refining industry, the water treatment industry, the heavy industrial manufacturing industry etc. Earlier, the weight loss method was employed to investigate corrosion inhibitors for metal corrosion in the aggressive environments like HCl, H2SO4 solution etc. Earlier weight loss method was employed to investigate the corrosion inhibition properties of the inhibitors but over time so many experimental and theoretical techniques have been revealed, which are easier, quicker, and simpler with high accuracy. In recent advances in the investigation of corrosion inhibitors, Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been proven to an important tool to explore the effect of the addition of inhibitors on the surface morphology of the metal.