Electrochemical and quantum chemical investigation on adsorption of nifedipine as corrosion inhibitor at API 5L X-52 steel/HCL acid interface

Nifedipine, a pyridine derivative was investigated as corrosion inhibitor for API 5L X-52 steel in 2 M HCl solution by potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. Statistical tools were used to compare results of the experimental methods. The results showed that nifedipine is capable of inhibiting the corrosion of API 5L X-52 steel in 2 M HCl solution. Potentiodynamic polarization results reveal that nifedipine functions as a mixed-type inhibitor and presents an inhibition efficiency of about 78% at 500 ppm. Impedance data reveal an increasing charge transfer resistance with increasing inhibitor concentration and also shows comparable inhibition efficiency of about 89-94% at 500 ppm. Thermodynamic parameters imply that nifedipine is adsorbed on the steel surface by a physiochemical process and obeys Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The calculated molecular properties namely the highest occupied molecular orbital energy, lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy, chemical hardness, energy gap, dipole moment, electronegativity and global nucleophilicity index all show a positive relationship to the observed corrosion inhibition efficiency.