Hydroxyethyl cationic surfactants as corrosion inhibitors for S90 steel in produced water: Electrochemical, and computational studies

To overcome both the bad economic and environmental effects resulting from oil wells produced water corrosion problems, two new cationic surfactants, N-(2-hydroxyethyl)- N,N-dimethyldodecan-1-aminium bromide (DC12) and 1-dodecyl-3-(hydroxymethyl)pyridin-1-ium bromide (PC12), was created, and their chemical structures were characterized using FTIR and 1 H NMR analyses. Both surfactants DC12 and DC12 were examined as corrosion inhibitors for S90 steel in oil-wells-produced water at 298 K. The results showed that these amphiphile concentrations significantly boosted inhibitory effectiveness. At a dosage of 250 ppm, it had a maximal inhibitory efficacy of 84.1 % and 86.2 % for DC12 and PC12, respectively. Inhibitors of DC12 and PC12 both meet the predictions for physisorption and chemisorption made by the Langmuir model. Atomic force microscope (AFM) analysis was performed as a surface morphology inspection for the S90 carbon steel. Simulations utilizing density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) helped to validate these findings. As a result, both DC12 and PC12 are efficient corrosion inhibitors that can be employed to prevent steel deterioration caused by the effects of oil well-produced water on metallic equipment. Finally, a suitable corrosion inhibition mechanism was postulated and discussed.