Chitosan Schiff base: an environmentally benign biological macromolecule as a new corrosion inhibitor for oil & gas industries

An eco-friendly Schiff base, namely Salicylaldeyde-Chitosan Schiff Base (SCSB), was synthesized by the reaction of chitosan and salicylaldehyde. In 3.5% NaCl saturated with carbon dioxide at 65 °C corrosion inhibition effect was analyzed using weight loss, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) methods. The PDP results revealed that SCSB acts as a mixed type inhibitor and reduces the corrosion process effectively at 150 mg L⁻¹ concentration with an inhibition efficiency of 95.2% and corrosion rate of 0.444 mm/y. EIS measurements suggest that the corrosion inhibition process is kinetically controlled. Langmuir adsorption model is the best fit among the other tested isotherms. The surface analysis was carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning Kelvin probe (SKP), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to corroborate the formation of inhibitor film on the metal surface. Computational studies showed the effective adsorption of the protonated form of inhibitor.