Novel Imine-Tethering Cationic Surfactants: Synthesis, Surface Activity, and Investigation of the Corrosion Mitigation Impact on Carbon Steel in Acidic Chloride Medium via Various Techniques

Novel imine-tethering cationic surfactants, namely (E)-3-((2-chlorobenzylidene)
amino)-N-(2-(decyloxy)-2-oxoethyl)-N,N-dimethylpropan-1-aminium chloride (ICS-10) and (E)-3-((2-
chlorobenzylidene)amino)-N,N-dimethyl-N-(2-oxo-2-(tetradecyloxy)ethyl)propan-1-aminium chloride
(ICS-14), were synthesized, and the chemical structures were elucidated by various spectroscopic
approaches. The surface properties of the target-prepared imine-tethering cationic surfactants were
investigated. The effects of both synthesized imine surfactants on carbon steel corrosion in a 1.0 M
HCl solution were investigated by weight loss (WL), potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), and scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) methods. The outcomes show that the inhibition effectiveness rises
with raising the concentration and diminishes with raising the temperature. The inhibition efficiency
of 91.53 and 94.58 % were attained in the presence of the optimum concentration of 0.5 mM of ICS-10
and ICS-14, respectively. The activation energy (Ea) and heat of adsorption (Qads) were calculated
and explained. Additionally, the synthesized compounds were investigated using density functional
theory (DFT). Monte Carlo (MC) simulation was utilized to understand the mechanism of adsorption
of inhibitors on the Fe (110) surface.