Corrosion Inhibition Performance of Brachystegia eurycoma Leaf Extract on Mild Steel in Acid Media

Abstract

The aim of this work is to investigate the corrosion inhibition of B. eurycoma leaves extract as a natural inhibitor for mild steel corrosion in 3 M H2SO4 solution. The corrosion inhibitory activity was analyzed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization. The surface roughness and its properties through scanning electron microscopy (SEM).  The obtained result from EIS   divulges that the gradual increase in inhibitor concentration and time of immersion leads to progressive increase in inhibition efficiency. At the end of 8 hours immersion time and inhibitor concentration of 1000 mg/l the highest inhibition efficiency of (88%) was obtained. The potentiodynamic polarization results indicated that addition of B. eurycoma leaves extracts hindered the reaction rates of anodic and cathodic reactions thereby performing as mixed- type inhibitor. The corrosion current density also revealed that in the presence of B. eurycoma leaves extracts the value of corrosion density reduced considerably from 265.2 \(\mu\) A/cm2 for sample without inhibitor to 67.8 \(\mu\) A/cm2 for sample with inhibitor. Again, it was observed that in the presence B. eurycoma leaves extracts the mechanism of hydrogen (effervescence) evolution was unique whereas the anodic dissolution of iron mechanism experienced the impact of the inhibitor. SEM inspection revealed that the mild steel surface showed smoother and lower damage in the presence of inhibitor. Obvious correlations were found between corrosion inhibition efficiency and some quantum chemical parameters such   as energy of highest occupied molecular orbital (EHOMO), energy of lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (ELUMO), energy gap (EL–H) and electronic density etc. The obtained results were further elucidated with frontier molecular orbital theory.