Design and Evaluation of Furfural - Chitosan Schiff Base Derivative as a Corrosion Inhibitor for Mild Steel in 1 M HCl

The results of this investigation show the efficacy of a novel Chitosan Schiff base derivative and its Nanohybrid as an eco-friendly corrosion inhibitor for steel (N80) under acidic conditions. The derivative featured several active sites and was successfully synthesized and characterized. A thorough investigation utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and elemental analysis verified the practical synthesis of the new Chitosan Schiff base derivative. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-visible spectroscopy methods were used to successfully verify the production of the nanoparticles and nanohybrid (CuNPs, NHFc). At 500 ppm, the synthesized compounds Fc and NHFc achieved excellent inhibitory efficiencies of 83.84% and 95.01%, respectively, displaying exceptional performance in inhibiting corrosion in acidic conditions. Compared to the Chitosan derivative without nanoparticles, the corrosion inhibition efficacy was significantly increased by adding Cu nanoparticles. Moreover, when using Langmuir isotherm models, the free energies (ΔGads) of the synthesized compounds were correctly estimated and found to be between -27.44 and -32.95 kJ/mol for molecules Fc and NHFc. To explain the adsorption behavior that underlies the inhibitory mechanisms and to confirm experimental results, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were also used in this work.