Novel cationic surfactants from fatty acids and their corrosion inhibition efficiency for carbon steel pipelines in 1 M HCl

Four fatty acids were used as a source of alkyl halides. Untraditionally tertiary amines were prepared by ethoxylation of aromatic and aliphatic fatty amines. These alkyl halide and tertiary amines were used to prepare 20 cationic quaternary ammonium surfactants (QASS). Their chemical structures were characterized and they tested as corrosion inhibitors for carbon steel in 1 M HCl solution. The corrosion inhibition efficiency was measured using, weight loss and potentiodynamic polarization methods. The inhibition efficiencies obtained from the two employed methods are nearly closed. From the obtained data it was found that, the inhibition efficiency increases with increasing the inhibitor concentration until the optimum one. Also, it was found that the inhibition efficiency of QASs which based on ethoxylated aromatic tertiary amine is greater than the obtained efficiencies by the QASs which based on ethoxylated aliphatic tertiary amines. The QASs based on alkyl halide C16 exhibited the maximum inhibition efficiency 98.8%. Adsorption of the inhibitors on the carbon steel surface was found to obey Langmuir’s adsorption isotherm. The quantum chemical calculations were done for some selected quaternary ammonium compounds based on their chemical structures QL1,4,5–QP3,4,5. The following quantum chemical indices such as the bond length, bond angle, charge density distribution, highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), energy gap ΔE = HOMO − LUMO, and dipole moment (u) were considered. The relation between these parameters and the inhibition efficiencies was explained on the light of the chemical structure of the used inhibitors.