A sustainable approach exploiting Chrysanthemum Coronarium flowers distillation waste as a corrosion suppressor for low carbon steel in monoprotic acid medium through electrochemical and computational evaluations

This study focuses on evaluating a biowaste generated amid the hydrodistillation process of Chrysanthemum Coronarium Flower compounds as a sustainable inhibitor for the corrosion of carbon steel in the hydrochloric medium. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents, phytochemical screening protocols as well as Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) analysis were implemented to examine the phytochemical diversity of the Chrysanthemum Coronarium flowers extract (CCFE). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) as well as Tafel extrapolation techniques were adopted for examining the corrosion suppression efficiency of the liquid waste as a corrosion inhibitor at 293 K. The findings indicated that the CCFE displayed strong corrosion suppression properties on the metal, achieving an impressive efficiency of 82 %. Following a mixed-type inhibition mechanism. Temperature influence in the presence of the CCFE was assessed at a 293-313 K domain, and the combined impact of KI and the CCFE inhibitor was investigated to determine their synergistic effects. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of the surface morphology of metal was carried out using SEM-EDX analysis to investigate the electrochemical behavior and comprehend alterations occurring on the surface as a result of the CCFE introduction. Moreover, computational analysis through Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Molecular Dynamic simulations (MD) were performed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of electronic adsorption occurring at specific active sites in the presence of the Chrysanthemum Coronarium Flowers compounds.