Eco-friendly anticorrosion for carbon steel in artificial seawater: Effect of the ethylene oxide number of polyoxyethylene lauryl ether on its inhibition behaviour combining experimental and theoretical perspectives

An environmental and cost-effective surfactant, polyoxyethylene lauryl ether with different numbers of ethylene oxide groups, was investigated as a corrosion inhibitor for carbon steel in artificial seawater by combining experimental and theoretical methods. All the anticorrosion experimental results from different techniques were in good agreement, which showed that polyoxyethylene lauryl ethers have outstanding anticorrosion properties for steel in seawater and that their performance improves with increasing ethylene oxide. SEM-EDS and FTIR spectroscopy confirmed that the inhibition behaviour arose from the formation of an adsorbed layer on the steel surface that repelled chloride corrosion. The Monte Carlo simulation and quantum calculation results further clarified the effect of ethylene oxide groups on the inhibition mechanism.