Synthesis and Characterization of the Mixed Metal Oxide of ZnO-TiO2 Decorated by Polyaniline as a Protective Film for Acidic Steel Corrosion: Experimental, and Computational Inspections

• Published in: Materials Vol. 15; no. 21; p. 7589
• Main Authors: Al-Masoud, May Ahmed, Khalaf, Mai M., Gouda, Mohamed, Dao, Van-Duong, Mohamed, Ibrahim M. A., Shalabi, Kamal, Abd El-Lateef, Hany M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 28.10.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Additives; Carbon steel; Carbon steels; Cathodic protection; Charge transfer; Circuits; Composite materials; Corrosion; Corrosion inhibitors; Corrosion mechanisms; Corrosion prevention; corrosion protection; Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; electrochemical studies; Electrode polarization; Field emission microscopy; Fourier transforms; Hazardous materials; High resolution electron microscopy; Infrared spectroscopy; Metal oxides; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Nitrates; Oil fields; petroleum industry; Photoelectrons; Photon correlation spectroscopy; Polyanilines; polymeric nanocomposite; Polymers; Potash; Potassium; Shielding; Substrates; theoretical and computational research; Titanium; Titanium dioxide; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy; Zinc; Zinc oxide; Japan
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma15217589

In this work, the preparation, characterization, and evaluation of a novel nanocomposite using polyaniline (PANi) functionalized bi-metal oxide ZnO-TiO2 (ZnTiO@PANi) as shielding film for carbon steel (CS)-alloy in acidic chloride solution at 298 K was studied. Different spectroscopic characterization techniques, such as UV-visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) approaches, as well as other physicochemical methods, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), were used to describe the produced nanocomposites. The significance of these films lies in the ZnO-TiO2 nanoparticle’s functionalization by polyaniline, a material with high conductivity and electrochemical stability in acidic solutions. The mechanistic findings of the corrosion inhibition method were obtained by the use of electrochemical methods including open-circuit potentials (OCP) vs. time, potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results indicate that the synthesized ZnTiO@PANi is a powerful acidic corrosion inhibitor, and its inhibition effectiveness is 98.86% in the presence of 100 ppm. Additionally, the charge transfer resistance (Rp) value augmented from 51.8 to 432.7, and 963.7 Ω cm2 when the dose of PANi, and ZnTiO@PANi reached 100 ppm, respectively. The improvement in Rp and inhibition capacity values with an increase in nanocomposite dose is produced by the nanocomposite additives covering a larger portion of the surface, resulting in a decrease in alloy corrosion. By identifying the probable regions for molecule adsorption on the steel substrate, theoretical and computational studies provided significant details regarding the corrosion mitigation mechanism. The possibility of substituting old poisonous small substances with inexpensive and non-hazardous polymeric materials as shielding layers for utilization in the oilfield sectors is an important suggestion made by this research.