Adsorption, thermodynamic and corrosion study of enalapril malate pharmaceutical drug as corrosion inhibitor for carbon steel in saline solution

Unused and expired pharmaceutical drugs are a novel type of organic corrosion inhibitor. They are less expensive, more effective, and less harmful than conventional organic corrosion inhibitors. This study investigated the effects of concentration, adsorption mechanism and thermodynamic parameters of enalapril malate (ENAP) as a corrosion inhibitor for carbon steel in a saline solution (3.5 % NaCl). The polarization method was used to determine the corrosion rate and inhibition efficiency. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force spectroscopy (AFM) were used to investigate the surface morphology and topography of carbon steel after immersion in both uninhibited and inhibited media for 24 h. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to confirm the adsorption of ENAP inhibitor on the surface of the carbon steel. The results showed that the inhibition efficacy (IE%) reached 89.74 % when the corrosive solution was inhibited by 1200 ppm of ENAP at 298 K. The results also revealed a strong linear relationship between C_inh/θ and C_inh, which best fitted the Langmuir isotherm model. Thermodynamic and kinetic studies indicated that the ENAP inhibitor underwent physical adsorption on an energetically homogenous adsorbent surface. The apparent activation energies (E_a∗) of the inhibited process were higher compared to the uninhibited process at all concentrations. FE-SEM analysis showed significantly reduce in the corrosion of carbon steel in the 3.5 % NaCl inhibited by ENAP compared with free saline solution.