Development of a Novel Thermally Stable Inhibitor Based on Furfuryl Alcohol for Mild Steel Corrosion in a 15% HCl Medium for Acidizing Application

Abstract

Although corrosion inhibitors are widely used as a practical method for inhibiting metal corrosion in a variety of industries, their efficiency decreases dramatically at high temperatures. We present a thorough experimental and theoretical investigation into the inhibitory power of a novel thermally stable corrosion inhibitor based on furfuryl alcohol (FACI). The open-circuit potential, linear polarization resistance, potentiodynamic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques were used for the first time to evaluate FACI inhibition performance at 293, 313, 333, and 353 K. All electrochemical methods clearly indicated that FACI effectively suppressed corrosion of mild steel (MS) in the 15% HCl environment via a mixed-type mechanism at all temperatures investigated. The highest inhibition efficiencies of 95.4 and 90.8 at 333 and 353 K, respectively, were obtained in the solution containing 136 × 10-5 M FACI. FACI inhibited both the anodic and cathodic corrosion reactions of MS, but its main effect was on the cathodic hydrogen evolutions. The results of the Langmuir adsorption isotherm confirmed that the predominantly chemical adsorption of FACI molecules occurred on the MS surface. The experimental results were also validated using a combined DFT.