Croton lechleri Extracts as Green Corrosion Inhibitors of Admiralty Brass in Hydrochloric Acid

Abstract

Croton lechleri, commonly known as Dragon’s blood, is a tree cultivated in the northwest Amazon rainforest of Ecuador and Peru. This tree produces a deep red latex which is composed of different natural products such as phenolic compounds, alkaloids, and others. The chemical structures of these natural products found in C. lechleri latex are promising corrosion inhibitors of admiralty brass (AB), due to the number of heteroatoms and π structures. In this work, three different extracts of C. lechleri latex were obtained, characterized phytochemically, and employed as novel green corrosion inhibitors of AB. The corrosion inhibition efficiency (IE%) was determined in an aqueous 0.5 M HCl solution by potentiodynamic polarization (Tafel plots) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, measuring current density and charge transfer resistance, respectively. In addition, surface characterization of AB was performed by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques. Chloroform alkaloid-rich extracts resulted in IE% of 57% at 50 ppm, attributed to the formation of a layer of organic compounds on the AB surface that hindered the dezincification process. The formulation of corrosion inhibitors from C. lechleri latex allows for the valorization of non-edible natural sources and the diversification of the offer of green corrosion inhibitors for the chemical treatment of heat exchangers.

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“…Natural plants contain a variety of organic compounds with anti-corrosion properties. These compounds are considered ideal raw materials for the preparation of green, effective and low-cost organic corrosion inhibitors [78,79]. Therefore, researching how to extract effective organic compounds from natural plants and turn them into organic corrosion inhibitors has not only high scientific value but also significant practical applications [80,81].…”

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“…Then, they elaborated BD to illustrate the main stages of the production process of green corrosion inhibitors, whose main stage is the extraction of active ingredients present in natural sources. Inhibitory power data from Cevallos-Morillo et al [64] was used to compare the inhibition efficiency of the different proposals from natural sources.…”