Metal corrosion is
an important economic problem globally. One
of the best ways to protect metal surfaces from corrosion is by the
use of corrosion inhibitors, especially surfactants. This study assesses
anticorrosion properties of three inhibitor compounds (S1, S2, and
S3) of ethoxylate sulfanilamide containing 2, 10, and 20 units of
ethylene oxide on carbon steel in 1 M HCl solution. The anticorrosive
performance of S1, S2, and S3 was studied using potentiodynamic polarization
(PDP), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), adsorption isotherm,
surface tests (scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive
X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis), and
computational studies (density functional theory (DFT) and molecular
dynamics (MD) simulations) within the concentration range of 10
–6
to 10
–2
M at 30 ± 2 °C.
The results of the methods used indicate that increasing the concentration
of the inhibitor compounds improves the effectiveness of inhibition
(from 50.9 to 98%), whereas the inhibition efficiency order for ethoxylated
sulfanilamide compounds is S2 > S3 > S1 with the highest inhibiting
efficiency, respectively, of 98.0, 95.0, and 90.0% for 10
–2
M. Also, PDP indicated that S1, S2, and S3 inhibitors act as mixed-type
inhibitors and their adsorption obeys the Langmuir adsorption isotherm
model. Surface tests show that the studied compounds can significantly
inhibit acid attack via chemical adsorption on the metal. Furthermore,
all of the chemical descriptors derived from DFT indicate that the
three inhibitors are quite well adsorbed by the adhesion centers on
the CS surface. The three compounds’ molecular geometries and
electronic structures were calculated using quantum chemical calculations.
Using theoretical computations, the energy difference between the
highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest occupied molecular
orbital has been determined to represent chemical reactivity and kinetic
stability of a composition.