A Combined Experimental and Computational (DFT, RDF, MC and MD) Investigation of Epoxy Resin as a Potential Corrosion Inhibitor for Mild Steel in a 0.5 M H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub> Environment
Rachid Hsissou,
Khadija Dahmani,
Anouar El Magri,
Abdelfettah Hmada,
Zaki Safi,
Nadia Dkhireche,
Mouhsine Galai,
Nuha Wazzan,
Avni Berisha
Affiliations
Rachid Hsissou
Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Bioorganic and Environment, Chemistry Department, Faculty of Sciences, Chouaib Doukkali University, BP 20, El Jadida 24000, Morocco
Khadija Dahmani
Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Catalysis and Environment, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofail University, BP 242, Kenitra 14000, Morocco
Anouar El Magri
Euromed Polytechnic School, Euromed Research Center, Euromed University of Fes, Fès 30000, Morocco
Abdelfettah Hmada
Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Process Engineering, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofail University, BP 242, Kenitra 14000, Morocco
Zaki Safi
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Al Azhar University-Gaza, Gaza BP 1277, Palestine
Nadia Dkhireche
Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Process Engineering, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofail University, BP 242, Kenitra 14000, Morocco
Mouhsine Galai
Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Process Engineering, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofail University, BP 242, Kenitra 14000, Morocco
Nuha Wazzan
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, BP 42805, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Avni Berisha
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural and Mathematics Science, University of Prishtina, 10000 Prishtina, Kosovo
In this work, a tetrafunctional epoxy resin entitled 2,3,4,5-tetraglycidyloxy pentanal (TGP) was tested and investigated as a potential corrosion inhibitor for mild steel (MS) in 0.5 M H2SO4 solution. The corrosion inhibition process for mild steel was employed alongside various techniques, such as potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), temperature effect (TE), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and theoretical approaches (DFT, MC, RDF and MD). Further, the corrosion efficacies obtained at the optimum concentration (10−3 M of the TGP) were 85.5% (EIS) and 88.6% (PDP), respectively. The PDP results indicated that the TGP tetrafunctional epoxy resin acted the same as an anodic inhibitor type in 0.5 M H2SO4 solution. SEM and EDS analyses found that the protective layer formed on the MS electrode surface in the presence of TGP could prevent the attack of the sulfur ions. The DFT calculation provided more information regarding the reactivity, geometric properties and the active centers of the corrosion inhibitory efficiency of the tested epoxy resin. RDF, MC and MD simulations showed that the investigated inhibitory resin have a maximum inhibition efficiency in 0.5 M H2SO4 solution.
