Probing the effect of newly synthesized phenyltrimethylammonium tetrachloroaluminate ionic liquid as an inhibitor for carbon steel corrosion

Abstract

The corrosion protection effect of phenyltrimethylammoniumtetrachloroaluminate[PTMA]+[AlCl4]−as an inhibitor was explored in the present work. In this paper, the authors have explored a non-heterocyclicbased ionic liquid as a corrosion inhibitor for metal protection in the acid cleaning process of metal. In particular, a negative ion is designed based onthe lewis acid concept by which it could cover the maximum surface by the bigger molecule size. The inhibition efficiency was found to be steadily increasing as the concentration of the [PTMA]+[AlCl4]− ionic liquids increased.These studies revealed thatthe inhibitor exhibited a remarkable potential for corrosion protection on carbon steel in 1 N HCl solution. Stable corrosion protection efficiency (96%) was achieved for 1.3 mMof inhibitor. The adsorption of the inhibitive molecule was studied by Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The anti-corrosion effect of ionic liquid on the surface protection was revealed by scanning electron microscope (SEM)and lower surface roughness attained at an optimum concentration of inhibitor in atomic force microscope (AFM) analysis. In this study, with the view of the experimental and theoretical investigation (gaseous and aqueous forms of [PTMA]+[AlCl4]− ionic liquid in presence of HCl)was investigated, and finding deduced that the ionic liquid offered maximum dispenses with the heterocyclic group. In addition, to validate the experimental result, dynamic simulation studies were performed in both gaseous and liquid stimulation conditions.

Keywords

• Carbon steel
• Ionic liquid
• Inhibitor
• EIS
• AFM
• Density functional theory