In situ synthesis, electrochemical and quantum chemical analysis of an amino acid-derived ionic liquid inhibitor for corrosion protection of mild steel in 1M HCl solution

In this study, an amino acid-derived ionic liquid inhibitor, namely tetra-n-butyl ammonium methioninate, was synthesized and the role this inhibitor for corrosion protection of mild steel exposed to 1.0 M HCl was investigated using electrochemical, quantum and surface analysis. By taking advantage of potentiodynamic polarization, the inhibitory action of tetra-n-butyl ammonium methioninate was found to be mainly mixed-type with dominant anodic inhibition. The effectiveness of the inhibitor was also indicated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Moreover, to provide further insight into the mechanism of inhibition, electrochemical noise (EN) and quantum chemical calculations of the inhibitor were performed.