Pyridazine derivatives as effective anti-corrosion additives for carbon steel in 1 M HCl: Electrochemical, surface and theoretical studies

The study aimed to investigate the corrosion inhibition performance of two new pyridazine derivatives namely ((E)-2-(3-(4-(carboxymethoxy)-3-methoxystyryl)-5-(2-chlorobenzyl)-6-oxopyridazin-1(6H)-yl)acetic acid (CO6) and (E)-6-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxystyryl)pyridazin-3(2H)-one (CO39) for carbon steel (C.S) in 1 M HCl by combining electrochemical techniques, surface analysis and theoretical studies. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) data indicated that the inhibitory efficiencies of CO6 and CO39 increased with increasing inhibitor concentration but decreased with increasing temperature, achieving 97.0% and 95.3%, respectively. The results of the potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) measurements show that the two pyridazine derivatives acted as mixed inhibitors. In addition, experimental studies have shown that CO6 and CO39 reduce corrosion rates by adsorbing on the steel surface following Langmuir adsorption isotherms. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) indicated that a protective layer had been developed on the surface of the carbon steel, which prevented corrosion from progressing. Quantum chemical computations and the molecular structures of the inhibitors were employed to investigate the mechanism of inhibition. The adsorption of the compounds investigated on C.S was validated by theoretical calculations including density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics simulation (MDS).