Potential inhibitor of adenylyl sulfate reductase isolated from Desulfovibrio desulfuricans with PU/PU-Ag to control pitting corrosion of oil tanks and pipelines.

This study aims to alleviate the microbiologically affected corrosion that occurred by sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) through synthesizing a bio-based polyurethane polymer and its nanocomposite coating, silver nanoparticles (PU-Ag). Moreover, this study aims to evaluate the effect of PU alone and PU-Ag as inhibitors for adenylyl sulfate reductase (APS), which is the main enzyme for sulfate reduction. In this study, the PU was prepared from the vegetable soybean oil, and the silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) with a concentration of 1% were coated to the PU, forming a nanocomposite. The PU and the PU-Ag were characterized and evaluated as inhibitors of the APS reductase enzyme. The results obtained from FTIR, UV, DLS, TEM, and XRD confirmed the preparation structure of the PU and PU-Ag. Furthermore, the PU/PU-Ag competitively inhibited the APS reductase with an inhibition constant equal to 35.7 and 11 mg, respectively. These indicated the exert inhibitory effect of PU/PU-Ag upon the activity of the APS reductase enzyme. The APS reductase enzyme produced by SRB, which is recorded as a big problem in the oil and gas industry, such as pitting corrosion of tanks and pipelines, could be inhibited by PU and PU-Ag.