Electrochemical Investigations of Hydrochloric Acid Corrosion for Carbon Steel and Coating Effect by Poly (butyl Methacrylate)-Grafted Alginate/Fe3O4

Abstract This study aimed at analyzing the performance of a corrosion resistant coating made from tri-iron tetraoxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NPs) and (Butyl-2-methylprop-2-enoate)-grafted alignate/Fe3O4 nanocomposite. Two methods were used to characterize the combination; Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and the Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). It was observed that the rate of corrosion of the carbon steel was greatly influenced by the molarities of HCl used, temperature and time of immersion. Corrosion rate was found to increase with increase in molarity of the hydrochloric acid and temperature but was inversely proportional to the time of immersion. Carbon steel was coated with the corrosion resistant combination using the hot-dip coating method. To characterize the coating, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy dispersive X-Ray (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) methods were used. Electrochemical studies (Tafel polarization and cyclic voltametry) showed that the optimum conditions for prevention of corrosion of the carbon steel were 150°C and immersed time of 2 hrs. The efficiency of coating varied between the 2 combinations, with PBMA-gft-Alg/Fe3O4 nanocomposite being more effective than Fe3O4NPs coating.