Corrosion inhibition of mild steel in hydrochloric acid solutions via cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide inhibitor
Cetyl trimethyl ammoniumbromide (CTAB) has been studied as a corrosion inhibitor of mild steel in 0.1 and 0.5 M HCl solutions using weight loss, polarization and electrochemical Impedance spectroscopy techniques (EIS). The results showed increasing the inhibition efficiency with increasing CTAB concentrations and decreasing with increasing the temperature. CTAB adsorption on the steel surface obeyed Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Potentiodynamic polarization curves showed that CTAB acted as a cathodic inhibitor. This supported by the impedance measurements which illustrated changing in charge transfer resistance and double layer capacitance, indicating adsorption of CTAB on the surface. The calculated parameters proved that the adsorption mechanism is physisorption and chemisorptions.