Electrochemical study of 2-mercaptoimidazole as a novel corrosion inhibitor for steels

From electrochemical methods, polarization resistance and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, the corrosion susceptibility of pipeline steel samples immersed in 1 M H₂SO₄ was determined using nil and different concentrations of the molecule 2-mercaptoimidazole (2MI). It was found that a corrosion inhibiting efficiency, IE, value of 98.5% was reached when the 2MI concentration in the system increased to 25 ppm. Moreover, at this concentration, the 2MI IE was measured as a function of time finding that the IE kinetics follows the relationship: %IE = 98.5 − 0.03t after 800 h of evaluation. During the first 200 h 2MI IE was higher that 90% then, it decreased to 70% and it remained constant up to 1200 h. It is shown that this compound can affect both the anodic and cathodic processes, thus it can be classified as a mixed-type inhibitor however, from variation of both corrosion potential and polarization resistance with 2MI] it was possible to state that the anodic reaction rate, of the corrosion process, decreases at a greater proportion than the cathodic one. 2MI follows an adsorption mechanism, which can be adequately described by the Langmuir isotherm with an adsorption standard free energy difference (ΔG°_ads) of −26.8 kJ mol⁻¹. In order to analyze the influence of substituting groups, both electron-donating and electron-attracting and the number of π-electrons on the corrosion inhibiting properties of organic molecules, an electrochemical study was carried out on four different molecules having similar chemical framework structure: 2-mercaptoimidazole (2MI), 2-mercaptobenzoimidazole (2MBI) 2-mercapto-5-methylbenzimidazole (2M5MBI) and 2-mercapto-5-nitrobenzimidazole (2M5NBI). It was found that the IE order followed by the molecules tested was 2MI > 2MBI > 2M5MBI > 2M5NBI. Thus 2MI turned out to be the best inhibitor, even superior to the 2MBI. This fact strongly suggests that, contrary to a hitherto generally suggested notion, an efficient corrosion inhibiting molecule does not require to be a large one, also bearing an extensive number of π-electrons.