A Green and Sustainable Approach for Carbon Steel Acidic Corrosion Inhibition Using Agricultural Waste: Experimental and Theoretical Studies

Carbon steel corrosion in hydrochloric acid media is a huge challenge in the chemical industry; hence, creating green and more efficient inhibitors is an urgent task. Furthermore, the increasing amount of solid wastes arising from the municipality and other sources and its disposal consequence has been a major economic and environmental problem. Hence, in this research, the effect of agricultural waste as a natural inhibitor on the carbon steel dissolution in one molar hydrochloric acid solution was studied using electrochemical and surface techniques. The obtained results showed that the corrosion protection potential of the agricultural waste increases with the agricultural waste concentration and an optimum value of 95.92% was achieved at 500 ppm concentration. The waste adsorption on the metallic surface followed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy test shows that the inhibitor inhibits the metal against corrosion by getting adhered to the carbon steel surface. The scanning electron microscopy analysis proves that in the presence of the inhibitor, the surface of the carbon steel becomes smooth owing to the inhibitive films formed on the metal surface. The results demonstrated that the agricultural waste extract is an excellent green and eco-friendly corrosion inhibitor.