Synthesis, characterization and performance of ecofriendly epoxy resin as a highly efficient corrosion inhibition for mild steel in 1m HCl solution

Abstract

In this study, a novel epoxy resin called tetraglycidyl ether of methyl-α-D-mannopyranoside (TGEMM) was synthesized and investigated for its potential used as a corrosion inhibitor for mild steel in a 1.0 M hydrochloric acid (HCl) solution. The main goal was to evaluate the corrosion inhibition properties of TGEMM using various techniques. The methods used in this research included potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), temperature effect, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and contact angle measurement. These techniques were chosen to comprehensively assess the corrosion inhibition performance of TGEMM on MS. In this context, the structure of the newly synthesized TGEMM epoxy resin was identified and confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The results obtained from the experiments demonstrated that, at a lower concentration of 10⁻³ M, TGEMM demonstrated a high inhibitory efficacy of 91.49%, assessed <i>via</i> electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and 93.84%, measured <i>via</i> potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), in a 1.0 M hydrochloric acid solution. The PDP data indicated that the TGEMM epoxy resin acted as an anodic inhibitor in the acidic environment. In addition to gain insights into the interaction mechanism and adsorption mode, DFT and MD simulations were conducted, revealing valuable information about the interaction of TGEMM with the mild steel surface.