Abstract
This study entails the syntheses of a homopolymer, poly(diallylammonium chloride) (3), and copolymers (8a-c) containing hydrophilic/hydrophobic pendants and their role in mitigating mild steel in aggressive 20% formic acid, a type of corrosion that is not frequently discussed in the literature. The synthesized homopolymer and copolymers were characterized by FTIR, NMR, viscometry, and TGA. Inhibitor 8b was found to be the most potent, with 81.8% inhibition efficiency (IE) registered via the potentiodynamic polarization method for 100 ppm of inhibitor concentration at 30 °C. Inhibitor 8b, mixed with 2 mmol KI, showed more than 90% IE for a meager 1 ppm inhibitor concentration. For a synergism of 50 ppm inhibitor and 2 mmol KI, the IE reached a high value of 99.1%. The synergism was so good that it helped the inhibitor retain ∼100% of its original IE even after a 24 h weight loss study at 60 °C. The adsorption isotherm study showed that 8b followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and adsorbed via chemisorption. A very high value (2.48 × 105 L mol-1) of the equilibrium adsorption constant (Kads) indicated strong adsorption. XPS and SEM surface studies provided evidence of the inhibitor found on the metal surface. Some toxicological parameters, such as LC50, bioaccumulation factor, and developmental toxicity, have been measured computationally. A brief mechanistic insight into how the inhibitors functioned has been offered along with the DFT study.