Development of Potential Sweet Corrosion Inhibitors from the Waste Residue of the Salsola Imbricata Plant of Saudi Origin

Modern approaches of waste management focus nowadays on the consideration of plant residues as useful materials rather than undesired waste. Plant residues have also high percentages of organic chemicals content (secondary metabolites) that can be utilized by phytochemical techniques in various applications including corrosion inhibition. One of the best strategies for combating corrosion in the sweet environment is the use of corrosion inhibitors. However, most of the inhibitors used in these industries are composed of compounds that are toxic; thus, they are facing criticism owing to their threat to humans and the environment. Consequently, the use of less toxic and renewable products as corrosion inhibitors is at the forefront of current research interest. The use of natural products (biomaterials) as corrosion inhibitors has been advocated because they are renewable, readily available, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive and can be obtained by simple extraction procedures. In this project, we are proposing the isolation and structural elucidation of the phytomaterials of unharvested residue of the wild growing Salsola Imbricata plant of Saudi Origin. Salsola imbricata (Arabic name: Tharmad) is a shrub wild growing in Middle East deserts. The plant has several other folk medicinal applications, especially in Saudi Arabia, where it is used as anthelmintic and snuff for cleaning sinuses and for alleviating dermal itching. The phytochemical investigation of the studied plant will be performed in this proposed work using conventional Chromatographic techniques. The isolated biomaterials will be tested after that as sweet corrosion inhibitors for carbon steel substrates. Developing competency in the area of green and sweet corrosion inhibitors will open wide opportunities of advanced application in corrosion inhibition field using a combination of phytochemistry and metal protection. The project will cover both fundamental aspects and application in corrosion inhibition since the fundamental of the isolation of active corrosion inhibitors from plants is still not established yet. This challenging project will also train manpower and build infrastructure in the area of corrosion science and technology and also contribute to education by providing challenging workable graduation project topics for both graduate and undergraduate students in the field of biomaterials, chemistry, and mechanical engineering