Synthesis, Characterization, Thermodynamic Analysis and Quantum Chemical Approach of Branched N, N′-bis(p-hydroxybenzoyl)-Based Propanediamine and Triethylenetetramine for Carbon Steel Corrosion Inhibition in Hydrochloric Acid Medium

Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-022-07520-y RESEARCH ARTICLE-CHEMISTRY Synthesis, Characterization, Thermodynamic Analysis and Quantum Chemical Approach of Branched N, N  -bis(p-hydroxybenzoyl)-Based Propanediamine and Triethylenetetramine for Carbon Steel Corrosion Inhibition in Hydrochloric Acid Medium Mohamed A. Abbas1 · E. I. Arafa2 · Mahmoud A. Bedair3,4 · Amr S. Ismail5 · Olfat E. El-Azabawy1 · Sharbat A. Baker6,7 · Hussin I. Al-Shafey1 Received: 10 May 2022 / Accepted: 27 November 2022 © The Author(s) 2022 Abstract The influence of branched N, N  -bis(p-hydroxybenzoyl) containing propylenediamine (PDA) and triethylenetetramine (TETA) composites for corrosion inhibition of carbon steel in acidic solution (1 M HCl) was investigated using several quantum chemical, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization as electrochemical techniques. The investigated molecules were posteriorly characterized by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1 H NMR) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) while the surfaces of carbon steel test coupons were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The obtained results revealed that the two amino compounds, N, N  -bis(p-hydroxybenzoyl) propanediamine (N, N  -HBPDA) and N, N  -bis(p-hydroxybenzoyl) triethylenetetramine (N, N  HBTETA), have significant efficiency toward steel corrosion attack and its inhibition performance was significantly boosted by increasing concentration of di- and tetramine containing inhibitors. The two inhibitors achieved a maximum corrosion inhibition efficiency of 99.1% as indicated from polarization measurements. The isotherm feature of Langmuir adsorption appeared to be proper factor for associating the experimental gains with an applicable mechanism of inhibition process. The free energy Gads was calculated to be − 27.5, 29.1 kJ/mol based on the adsorption isotherm model, indicating physical adsorption on the carbon steel surface. Further, images of the morphological analysis exhibited various features of attack owing to the aggressive medium and the employed concentration of the inhibitor. These synthesized amines supplied many favorable scores in the fabrication of functional mixed-type inhibitors. The computational studies reveal that N, N  -HBPDA and N, N  HBTETA molecules could absorb via several lone pairs and π clouds, confirming their ability to be good corrosion inhibitors. Keywords Propylenediamine · Triethylenetetramine · Corrosion inhibitor · Carbon steel · Quantum chemistry · Thermodynamics 1 Introduction B Mohamed A. Abbas A wide range of studies and several academic scholars have employed a lot of chemical materials and green components that can fabricate significant impediments to conserve the surface of steel from corrosion hazards [1]. For the aim of corrosion inhibition of metallic surfaces based fundamentally on steel materials in processing domains, organic 1 Petroleum Applications Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, P.B. 11727, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt 2 Processes Design & Develop Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, P.B. 11727, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt 3 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science (Men’s Campus), Al-Azhar University, Nasr City 11884, Cairo, Egypt 4 College of Science and Arts, University of Bisha, P.O. Box 101, Al-Namas 61977, Bisha, Saudi Arabia 6 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University (for Girls), Cairo 11754, Egypt 5 Petrochemicals Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, P.B. 11727, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt 7 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, University of Bisha, P.O. 551, Bisha 61922, Saudi Arabia 123 Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering Fig. 1 Synthetic route of the studied N, N‘-HBPDA and N, N’-HBTETA molecules inhibitors are extremely appropriate compounds because of their high effectiveness and obviously promoting ecological attentions [2, 3]. Continual searching for reliable corrosion inhibitors encouraged the efforts for utilizing natural and synthetic macromolecules for corrosion inhibition in saline media [4, 5]. Furthermore, fabricating and preparing of modern inhibitors-based organic compounds show magnificent features for responding demands [6, 7]. Adequate organic composites containing heteroatoms and branched molecules have been reported as new trends of significant corrosion inhibitors such as marine processing by-products [8], ionic liquids [9], non-ionic surfactants [10], ester molecules [11] and Schiff bases [12, 13]. In general, the inhibition performance of these organic macromolecules appears with their adsorption effect on the steel surface throughout their functional groups [14]. Highly aggressive environment like hydrochloric acid medium against steel surface is mainly employed for acidizing, pickling (within the concentration range 5–28%) and cleaning objectives in many manufacturing proceedings [15–18]. HCl acid gains the priority in the pickling process over the other mineral acids (H2 SO4 , HNO3 , H3 PO4 , etc.) as it pickles more quickly, with better surface quality and metal chlorides formed in the pickling are more soluble than metal phosphates and sulfates [19]. The petroleum sector often uses the acidizing procedure to stimulate oil wells in order to dissolve drilling mud and mineral rocks for oilfield exploration and development. Concentrated HCl or HF/HCl solutions are frequently injected into an oil well to boost oil output and wellbore penetrability [20]. For such industrial implementations, the attention for developing low cost and effective eco-friendly organic compounds as corrosion inhibitors are increased. Mainly, the employed hydrocarbons for corrosion inhibition of metallic materials contain different atoms like nitrogen, oxygen 123 and sulfur and also consist of numerous types of bonds in their chemical structures in which they are capable to well adsorb on the metal surface [21]. A protective layer can be composed throughout the bond formation between steel and the electron pair of the heteroatoms that inhibiting bad behavior of solution [22]. Several formulations of Schiff bases discussed the inhibition mechanism based on several aggressive media [23–26]. It is possible that these studies did not take into consideration that the functional imine group contained Schiff base composition, in some cases, is not prolonged steady in acid media and may undergo hydrolysis over time leading to the formation of the corresponding amine [27, 28]. Further, corrosion inhibition efficacy of iron-based metallic surface in definite concentration of molar hydrochloric acid aqueous solutions using ethylenediamine (EDA) and its derivates in absence and presence of substituted aliphatic or aromatic sites have been particularly characterized [29–32]. The aforementioned researches appeared that diamine inhibi (...truncated)