Abstract

Corrosion inhibition and adsorption characteristics of elephant grass extracts on mild steel in 1 M HCl solution were investigated. Mass loss, corrosion rate measurements, inhibition efficiency, atomic adsorption spectroscopy (AAS), FT-IR spectroscopy and scanning electron spectroscopic analysis were used to assess the inhibitory properties of the extract in the acid solution. The results show that the steel dissolution rate in the acidic solution was sensitive to the extract concentration as mass loss and corrosion rates were observed to decrease with increase in the extract concentration. The inhibition efficiencies were averagely above 95% at room temperature increasing with increase in concentration of the extract but decreases with increasing temperature. FTIR results showed that the inhibition was essentially by absorption through the functional groups present in the extract while the activation energies and Langmuir adsorption isotherms confirm the mechanism to be physical adsorption. The SEM images of the corroded substrates confirmed pitting as the primary corrosion mechanism which was substantially mitigated with the use of the extract. Overall, the elephant grass extract was found to be efficient for corrosion inhibition of mild steel in HCl environment.