Adsorption and inhibitive properties of aminobiphenyl and its Schiff base on mild steel corrosion in 0.5 M HCl medium

Electrochemical measurements were performed to investigate the effectiveness and adsorption behaviour of aminobiphenyl (Aph) and 2-(3-hydroxybenzylideneamino)biphenyl (Aph-S), as corrosion inhibitors for mild steel (MS) in 0.5 M HCl solution. Potentiodynamic polarization, linear polarization resistance (LP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques were applied to study the metal corrosion behaviour in the absence and presence of different concentrations of Aph and Aph-S. In order to gain more information about adsorption mechanism the AC impedance technique was used to evaluate the potential of zero charge (PZC) from polarization resistance (R_p) versus voltage (E) plot. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements showed that Aph act as cathodic type inhibitor where as Aph-S act mixed type. The inhibition efficiency (IE%) increases with increasing concentration of compounds and reached 92.6% for Aph and 97.2% for Aph-S at 5 × 10⁻³ M. Double layer capacitance (C_dl) and polarization resistance (R_p) values are derived from Nyquist plots obtained from AC impedance studies. The experimental data fit Langmuir isotherm for both Aph and Aph-S, and from the adsorption isotherm some thermodynamic data for the adsorption processes are calculated and discussed. The effect of exposure time on the corrosion behaviour of mild steel in the absence and presence of inhibitor over 168 h was also studied.