Effect of the alkyl chain of quaternary ammonium cationic surfactants on corrosion inhibition in hydrochloric acid solution

In this study, the effect of the alkyl chain of quaternary ammonium cationic surfactants on corrosion inhibition in hydrochloric acid (HCl) solution was investigated by using dodecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (DTAC), tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (TTAC), cetyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC), and octadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (OTAC) as corrosion inhibitors to uncover their structure–efficiency relationships. The effect of the alkyl chain of quaternary ammonium cationic surfactants on corrosion inhibition in HCl solution was studied under different conditions, such as corrosion inhibitor concentration, temperature, and acidity, and this was done using the weightlessness method. The results obtained show that these inhibitors have high corrosion inhibition effect on A₃ steel, and the corrosion inhibition efficiency is dependent on the length of the alkyl chain. At the same concentration, the longer the alkyl chain, the weaker the corrosion inhibition effect. When the temperature was 50 °C and the concentration of corrosion inhibitor was 70 mg/L, the corrosion inhibition efficiency order of the four cationic surfactants was DTAC > TTAC > CTAC > OTAC. Besides, the experimental results obtained show that the adsorption of the inhibitor on the A₃ steel surface conforms to the Langmuir type isotherm, and then the corresponding adsorption thermodynamic parameters were obtained according to these parameters. It was observed that ΔH, ΔS, and E_a increased with increase in the length of the alkyl chain. The adsorption of the inhibitor on the steel surface is an exothermic, spontaneous, entropy process.