Electrochemical, surface, and density functional theory
(DFT)/Monte
Carlo (MC) simulation studies were used in investigating the characteristics
of
N
,
N
′-(disulfanne-1,2-dicarbonothioyl)bis(
N
,
N
′-bis(2,6-dimethylphenyl)formimidamide)
(
DS1
),
N
,
N
′-(disulfanne-1,2-dicarbonothioyl)bis(
N
,
N
′-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)formimidamide)
(
DS2
),
N
,
N
′-(disulfanne-1,2-dicarbonothioyl)bis(
N
,
N
′-dimesitylformimidamide) (
DS3
), and
N
,
N
′-(disulfanne-1,2-dicarbonothioyl)bis(
N
,
N
′-bis(2,6-dichlorophenyl)formimidamide)
(
DS4
) as inhibitors of acid corrosion of mild steel.
The inhibitors were found to effectively reduce the rates of steel
dissolution at the anode as well as cathodic hydrogen evolution. The
order of inhibition efficiencies of studied compounds is
DS1
(PDP/LPR/EIS: 98.60/97.98/96.94%) >
DS2
(PDP/LPR/EIS:
98.36/96.86/96.90%) >
DS3
(PDP/LPR/EIS: 94.66/87.44/94.30%)
>
DS4
(PDP/LPR/EIS: 83.57/77.02/75.17%) at 1.00 mM,
and
the overall efficiencies appeared to depend on the molecular and electronic
structures of the compounds. The compounds offered high resistance
to charge transfer across the electrode/electrolyte system by forming
adsorbed film whose resistance increased with an increase in concentration.
Findings suggested that the adsorption process involved combined chemisorption
and physisorption. DFT calculations and MC simulations provided theoretical
justifications for the experimental results.