Corrosion Inhibition Effect of Pyridine-2-Thiol for Brass in An Acidic Environment

In this study, the inhibitive performance of pyridine-2-thiol added to a corrosive solution was investigated for brass using potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Electrochemical experiments were performed with different inhibitor concentrations in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ as the corrosive medium. For potentiodynamic polarization, i_corr values decreased significantly for the inhibited solutions in contrast with the uninhibited solution. Pyridine-2-thiol had an optimum inhibition concentration of 0.25 mM, giving an i_corr value of 1.8 µA/cm² compared to 26 µA/cm² for the blank solution. EIS data indicated that R_p and R_ct values increased substantially after the addition of the corrosion inhibitor and corrosion inhibition efficiencies of more than 85% was achieved for the majority of the inhibited solutions. Scanning electron microscopy showed defect free and less scale formation for the inhibited surface but the bare brass surface had larger amounts of scale formation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV-vis spectroscopy was used to investigate surface chemical composition and inhibitor structural changes over time.