Xanthione: A new and effective corrosion inhibitor for mild steel in sulphuric acid solution

The adsorption and inhibition effect of xanthione (XION) on mild steel in 0.5 M H2SO4 at 303–333 K were studied using gravimetric and UV–visible spectrophotometric methods. The results obtained show that XION acts as an effective corrosion inhibitor for mild steel in sulphuric acid and inhibition efficiency reaches 98.0% at a very low inhibitor concentration of 10 μM. Inhibition efficiency was found to increase with increase in XION concentration but decreased with temperature suggesting physical adsorption mechanism. Arrhenius law and its transition equation lead to estimate the activation parameters of the corrosion process. XION inhibits the corrosion of mild steel effectively at moderate temperature and adsorbs according to the Langmuir isotherm. Thermodynamic parameters governing the adsorption process have been calculated and discussed. The UV–visible absorption spectra of the solution containing the inhibitor after the immersion of mild steel specimen indicate the formation of a XEN–Fe complex. Attempt to correlate the molecular structure to quantum chemical indices was made using density functional theory (DFT).