Application of quercetin as a green inhibitor to prevent mild steel corrosion in the petroleum industry: Experimental and modelling techniques

Quercetin (QT) is found to be a green source of anti-corrosion additive for M-S protection in 0.5 M sulfuric solution. Weight loss, surface studies, atomic absorption spectroscopy, potentiodynamic polarization (PP), impedance spectroscopy (EIS), - more especially, scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy SEM/EDS—and simulation studies were among the methods used to evaluate the efficacy of corrosion inhibition. With 1000 ppm of the inhibitor at 303 K, the weight loss trials had the highest inhibition effectiveness of 96.8 % which obeyed Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The inhibitor QT is represented as mixed-type as per polarization studies. Scanning electron microscopy test results showed the lesser degradation of the lower M-S surface in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ solution at 1000 ppm QT. Moreover, modelling studies employing density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) showed that the green inhibitor QT adsorbed on the M-S surface and formed a barrier on the metal surface.