Investigating the synergistic effect of fish waste extract and KI on the corrosion inhibition of carbon steel in sulfuric acid solution

Biowaste has become a serious problem that can lead to serious environmental pollution and waste of resources if not handled properly. Waste materials are often high in proteins, which are easily extracted and hydrolyzed to provide an adequate quantity of amino acids. This indicates that biowastes can be used as green and efficient corrosion inhibitors (CIs). This work aimed to prepare fish waste extract (FWE) by acid hydrolysis with alkaline leaching using fish waste as the raw material. The results of the characterization analysis identified the presence of 17 amino acids, with Leucine, Phenylalanine, Methionine, and Alanine being the most abundant. FWE was then tested as a corrosion inhibitor (CI) for carbon steel in 0.5 mol/L H2SO4. Further, the effect of KI on the corrosion inhibition performance of FWE for carbon steel in 0.5 mol/L H2SO4 was systematically investigated by the weight loss method, electrochemical method, and surface analysis. The maximum corrosion inhibition efficiencies were 88.7 % and 63.9 % for the FWE and KI alone, and 97.10 % for the combination of FWE and KI. The synergistic coefficient study confirmed that the synergistic coefficients of the FWE and KI exceeded 1 across all concentration conditions, indicating a synergistic effect between them. The surface analysis results showed that the deterioration of carbon steel after adding the compounded CI was mild, and pitting and crevice corrosion was not observed. Theoretical calculations revealed the active reaction sites of four major amino acid molecules via quantum chemical and molecular dynamics simulations. The effect of different types of side chains and heteroatoms of amino acid molecules on their corrosion inhibition performance was elucidated to provide theoretical guidance for designing biowaste CIs.