Experimental and theoretical studies on the corrosion inhibition of mild steel by some sulphonamides in aqueous HCl

Corrosion inhibition studies of mild steel in aqueous HCl by some sulphonamides namely sulphamethazine (SMT), sulphachloropyridazine (SCP), sulphabenzamide (SBZ) and sulphaquinoxaline (SQX) has been investigated using experimental techniques (such as weight loss, potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)) and theoretical methods (using the Density Functional Theory (DFT)). All the compounds effectively inhibited the corrosion process by becoming adsorbed on the metal surface following the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. The electrochemical results showed that these inhibitors are mixed-type. The theoretical studies were undertaken to provide mechanistic insight into the roles of the different substituents on the corrosion inhibition and adsorption behaviour of the studied compounds. The calculated quantum chemical parameters include the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), the energy of the HOMO, dipole moment and partial atomic charges, etc. The calculated molecular properties were compared across the structures of the four compounds in order to identify trends related to their reactivity and their corrosion inhibition ability. The results also show that the ability of the sulphonamides to inhibit metal corrosion is strongly dependent on the electron donating ability of the substituent group and that the preferred site for interaction with the metal surface, in all the sulphonamides, is the SO2 group.