Rapid and eco-friendly one-step synthesis of dodecylamine-encapsulated mesoporous silica nanocontainers

Incorporating nanoreservoirs loaded with corrosion inhibitors is the most attractive approach for developing extrinsic self-healing anti-corrosion coatings. This work reports a rapid and eco-friendly one-step synthesis of dodecylamine-encapsulated mesoporous silica nanocontainers. The nanocontainers were characterized by X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The as-synthesized nanocontainers were amorphous with short-range ordered mesoporous channels. Thermogravimetric study confirmed the inhibitor loading to be ∼13.6%. The nanocontainers (1 wt%) were further dispersed in 0.1 mol/L NaCl solution, and the release behaviour was systematically studied as a function of pH (acidic, basic and neutral) by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy at different durations. The release was more pronounced at acidic pH ranges. The inhibitor-loaded nanocontainers provided significantly higher impedance values in acidic environment revealing sustained inhibitor release and enhanced corrosion protection for the carbon steel electrode. The study also reports detailed thermogravimetric results on the effect of different washing procedures in determining the inhibitor percentage loading.