Surface Protection and Morphological Study of Copper by Green Corrosion Inhibitor: 8QSC in HNO3 Medium

The inhibition performance and surface protection of green corrosion inhibitor 8-quinoline sulphonyl chloride (8QSC) on copper (Cu) was evaluated by chemical (weight loss) method in 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 M HNO3 solutions and by electrochemical methods such as potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), AC-impedance spectroscopy (AC-IS) and linear polarization resistance in 1.0 M HNO3 solution at room temperature. Both chemical and electrochemical techniques showed that 8QSC is an efficient green corrosion inhibitor for copper and the efficiency reached 90.4% by weight loss method and 88.4% by AC-IS method at optimum concentration of (300 ppm) 8QSC. The adsorption behavior of 8QSC on copper metal in acid medium obeyed the Langmuir isotherm. The thermodynamic parameters of the adsorption processes were calculated and discussed. AC-IS technique exhibits one capacitive loop, indicating that the corrosion reaction was controlled by charge transfer process. The PDP curves revealed that 8QSC acts as a mixed-type inhibitor. Protective layer of 8QSC on copper surface was examined by SEM, AFM and FT-IR techniques. The experimental results corroborated with results obtained from theoretical DFT studies.