Artemisia Mesatlantica essential oil as green inhibitor for carbon steel corrosion in 1 M HCl solution: Electrochemical and XPS investigations

• Artemisia Mesatlantica essential oil (AMEO) is a new effective green corrosion inhibitor for carbon steel in 1 M HCl.
• AMEO acts as mixed-type inhibitor in 1 M HCl medium.
• The adsorption of AMEO is well described by the Temkin adsorption isotherm.
• XPS analysis confirmed the adsorption of inhibitor on carbon steel surface.

The present work is devoted to the study of Artemisia Mesatlantica essential oil (AMEO) as green corrosion inhibitor to afford the protection of carbon steel in 1 M HCl medium at 30 °C. Weight loss measurements and electrochemical techniques (potentiodynamic polarization curves, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy) were coupled with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analyses to characterize the inhibitive properties of AMEO and to determine the chemical composition of the inhibitive film formed on the steel surface. AMEO acted as an efficient inhibitor against the carbon steel corrosion in 1 M HCl, and its inhibition efficiency increased with the inhibitor concentration reaching a value of up to 92% at 3 g/L. Polarization studies showed that the AMEO was a mixed-type inhibitor. Adsorption of AMEO on the steel surface in 1 M HCl solution followed Langmuir's isotherm and the thermodynamic parameters were determined and discussed. The XPS studies showed that the inhibitive layer is composed of an iron oxide/hydroxide mixture where AMEO molecules are incorporated.