N-cetyl-N,N,N trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB)-stabilized polyaniline: a corrosion inhibitor for mild steel

The purpose of this study is to compare the inhibitive effect of polyaniline (PAni) and N-cetyl-N,N,N trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB)-stabilized PAni in a hydrochloric acid (HCl) medium.

PAni has been deposited potentiodynamically on mild steel in the presence of CTAB as a stabilizing agent to achieve high corrosion inhibition performance by the polymer deposition. The corrosion inhibition studies of CTAB-stabilized PAni inhibitor in 0.1 M HCl acidic solution was carried out by electrochemical methods, namely, open-circuit potential, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy technique.

The results of electrochemical studies have shown that the CTAB-stabilized PAni inhibitor has higher corrosion efficiency than PAni on mild steel in 0.1 M HCl solution. The maximum per cent efficiency evaluated using the potentiodynamic polarization method is approximately 91.9.

CTAB-stabilized PAni has never been studied as a corrosion inhibitor for mild steel in an acidic medium. The investigations demonstrate relatively the better corrosion inhibition efficiency and high dispersion of the polymer in the acidic medium.