Arylamino Substituted Mercaptoimidazole Derivatives as New Corrosion Inhibitors for Carbon Steel in Acidic Media: Experimental and Computational Study

Two arylamino substituted mercaptoimidazole derivatives namely 4,5-dimethyl-1-(phenylamino)-1H-imidazole-2(3H)-thione (I1) and 4,5-dimethyl-1-((p-chlorophenyl)amino)-1H-imidazole-2(3H)-thione (I2) were synthesized and investigated as corrosion inhibitors for carbon steel in 0.5 M HCl solution by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and SEM. The results showed that the investigated mercaptoimidazole derivatives act as mixed type inhibitors and inhibition efficiency follows the I2>I1 order. Adsorption of inhibitors on metal surface was found to obey the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Thermodynamic parameters revealed that adsorption of the inhibitors has both physisorption and chemisorption adsorption mechanism. Electrochemical test results were supported by quantum chemical parameters obtained from DFT calculations.