The inhibition performance of anionic surfactant and zwitterionic surfactant toward the corrosion of carbon steel in NaCl solution

Abstract Carbon steel suffers from serious corrosion in NaCl solution, the development of effective inhibitor has become a hot issue. The corrosion inhibition performance of sodium lauryl ether sulfate (AES) and lauryl betaine (BS‐12) and the mixture of the two inhibitors were studied using electrochemical and weight‐loss methods. Results showed the corrosion inhibition efficiency order is AES + BS‐12 > BS‐12 > AES, the inhibition efficiency of the inhibitor increases with the increasing of concentration and the maximum inhibition efficiency is 95.9% in the solution with 200 mg L −1 AES + BS‐12. Inhibitor can adsorb on Q235 surface through physical and chemical interactions and the adsorption obeys Langmuir isotherm. The migration of the corrosive ions to the metal is hindered and the metal is protected.