Investigation of the corrosion inhibition performance of snail slime on the exposed surface of mild steel in acidic environment

Corrosion of metals is a major issue in various industries and the use of organic materials, especially plant extracts, as alternatives to toxic chemicals in corrosion inhibitors is gaining attention. However, the potential of animal products as corrosion inhibitors has not been fully explored. This study investigates the corrosion inhibiting potential of snail slime (SS) for mild steel in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ solution using Gravimetric and electrochemical methods, including open circuit potential (OCP), potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for material characterization. The results indicate that snail slime has a high inhibition efficiency of up to 92.75%, with inhibition efficiency decreasing as temperature and immersion time increase but it increased with higher inhibitor concentrations. Adsorption studies showed that snail slime exhibited strong adherence to the Langmuir and Temkin adsorption isotherms, indicating spontaneous adsorption on mild steel. The inhibition mechanism shows typical physical adsorption and follows first-order kinetics. While the EIS analysis indicated a charge transfer-controlled corrosion process with the highest inhibition efficiency of 81.74%, the PDP analysis revealed that snail slime acted as a mixed-type inhibitor with the highest inhibition efficiency of 81.98%. FTIR reveals the functional groups responsible for the inhibition exhibited by snail slime inhibitors, including CH, OH, CO-O, CCl, and NH. SEM shows that the inhibition of corrosion is due to the formation of an insoluble stable protective film on the sample surface by an adsorption process. These findings suggest that snail slime has significant potential as an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic corrosion inhibitors in industrial applications.