An Eco-Friendly Quaternary Ammonium Salt as a Corrosion Inhibitor for Carbon Steel in 5 M HCl Solution: Theoretical and Experimental Investigation

The corrosion of industrial material is a costly problem associated with global economic losses reaching trillions of US dollars in the repair of failures. Injecting corrosion inhibitors is the most practically promising method for decelerating corrosion reactions and protecting surfaces. Recent investigations have focused on surfactants as corrosion inhibitors due to their amphiphilic nature, low cost, and simple chemical preparation procedures. This study aims to investigate the performance of an environment-friendly Quaternium-22 (Q-22) surfactant which is widely used in cosmetics for C-steel corrosion inhibition in a 5 M HCl medium. Weight loss experiments were performed at different concentrations and immersion times, presenting a maximum efficiency at 2.22 mmol·L(−1). The influence of Q-22 on the corrosion behavior of C-steel was elucidated using non-destructive electrochemical measurements. The overall results revealed that adding varied concentrations of Q-22 significantly decreases the corrosion rate of C-steel. The results revealed the physisorption nature of Q-22 onto the C-steel surface, with adsorption following the Freundlich isotherm (∆ [Formula: see text] = −16.40 kJ·mol(−)(1)). The relative inhibition performance of Q-22 was also evaluated by SEM and AFM analyses. Lastly, quantum chemical calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) demonstrated that Q-22 has promising molecular features concerning the anticorrosive mechanism.