Sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate as a sustainable inhibitor for zinc corrosion in 26% NH4Cl solution

Sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) was investigated as an eco-friendly inhibitor for zinc corrosion in 26% NH4Cl solution using corrosion experiments and theoretical calculations. Gravimetric and electrochemical results reveal that SDBS is an anodic inhibitor with excellent inhibition efficiency, which is further confirmed by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) observation. The inhibitory effect diminishes with positive shift of potential, exhibiting a desirable characteristic for battery application. Despite the inhibition efficiencies decrease as increasing temperature from 298 to 328 K, the compound still shows favorable inhibitive ability at each temperature. In addition, the adsorption of SDBS on zinc surface obeys Langmuir adsorption model. Quantum chemical calculations and molecular dynamic simulations were further performed to correlate the adsorption mechanism with the structure of SDBS molecule.