Chelates and corrosion inhibition of newly synthesized Schiff bases derived from o-tolidine

New copper(II), nickel(II), iron(III) and palladium(II) Schiff base complexes derived from o-tolidine and selected aldehydes, namely salicyaldehyde and 2-hydroxynaphthaldehyde have been synthesized and characterized by a combination of elemental analyses, magnetic moments, spectral (u.v.–vis., i.r.) and thermal (tg, dtg) mesurements. The corrosion inhibition of aluminium and copper in 1 M HCl and chromium–nickel steel in crude oil using N,N′bis(salicyledene)-o-tolidine have been studied by weight loss method.