A Comparative Study of the Inhibitory Effect of Gum Exudates from Khaya senegalensis and Albizia ferruginea on the Corrosion of Mild Steel in Hydrochloric Acid Medium

Abstract

A comparative study of the inhibitory potentials of gum exudates from Albizia ferruginea (AF) and Khaya senegalensis (KS) on the corrosion of mild steel in HCl medium was investigated using weight loss and gasometric method. The active chemical constituents of the gum were elucidated using GC-MS while FTIR was used to identify the bonds/functional groups in the gums. The two gum exudates were found to be good corrosion inhibitors for mild steel in acidic medium. On comparison, maximum inhibition efficiency was found in Khaya senegalensis with 82.56% inhibition efficiency at 0.5% g/L concentration of the gum. This may be due to the fact that more compounds with heteroatoms were identified in the GCMS spectrum of KS gum compared to the AF gum. The presence of such compounds may have enhanced their adsorption on the metal surface and thereby blocking the surface and protecting the metal from corrosion. The adsorption of the inhibitors was found to be exothermic and spontaneous and fitted the Langmuir adsorption model.