Effectiveness of Some Novel Ionic Liquids on Mild Steel Corrosion Protection in Acidic Environment: Experimental and Theoretical Inspections

Three ionic liquids (ILs)—1-butyl-1-methyl-pyrrolidinium Imidazolate (BMPyrIM), 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium Imidazolate (BMImIM), and bis(1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium Imidazolate) (BBMImIM)—were synthesized and examined experimentally and theoretically as potential inhibitors for mild steel corrosion in HCl (1.0 M) solution. To our knowledge, two of the ILs successfully synthesized in our laboratory named BMPyrIM and BBMImIM are novel. Different electrochemical (potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)), surface and structural (scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)) and theoretical (Density functional theory (DFT)) techniques were utilized to confirm their use as efficient environmentally safe inhibitors. These ionic liquids were designed to study the cation effect (imidazolium and pyrrolidinium) and the dimeric effect of the imidazolium-based IL. A pronounced inhibiting effect was recorded using the optimum concentration (5 × 10(−3) M) of BBMImIM with protection efficiency of 98.6% compared to 94.3% and 92.4% for BMImIM and BMPyrIM, respectively. The investigated ILs act as a mixed-type corrosion inhibitors and their protection obeys Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The results obtained by SEM, EDS and AFM confirmed the mild steel protection by the formation of protective film of the ILs on the steel surface resulted in less damaged surfaces compared with the blank solution. Furthermore, quantum chemical calculations illustrated the electronic structure of the investigated ILs and their optimized adsorptiοn configurations on mild steel surface. The findings from the different techniques helped to provide a supported interpretation of the inhibition mechanism.