Evaluation of Some Inorganic Anions and Organic Compounds as Corrosion Inhibitors of Cu-Zn Alloys in H2SO4 and HNO3 Solutions

Evaluation of inorganic and organic compounds as corrosion inhibitors of Cu-Zn alloys in H₂ SO₄ and HNO₃ solutions was studied using potentiodynamic and impedance spectroscopy along with scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-Ray analyzer (EDX) investigations. The corrosion inhibition of Cu-Zn alloys was investigated in oxy acid solutions using inorganic potassium permanganate and di-hydrogen phosphate, amino acids as environmentally safe materials, commercial cooling water, and green tea extracts. Both potassium permanganate and di-hydrogen phosphate improve the corrosion resistance of Cu-Zn alloys. Phosphate appears more effective as corrosion inhibitor for Cu-Zn alloys than permanganate. The inhibition efficiency (IE%) of the different amino acids such as valine, leucine and lysine was also calculated. The experimental results have shown that amino acid-like lysine can be used as an efficient corrosion inhibitor for the Cu-Zn alloys in oxy acid solutions. This may be due to the presence of two amino groups adsorbed together. For lysine, inhibition efficiency, IE%, of ~87 and ~59 is for H₂SO₄ and ~96.3 and 54.9 for HNO₃ for alloy I and II respectively are observed. Due to the composition of green water have a great effect on the inhibition action on Cu-Zn alloys which reaching 91.8 and 96.5% for Alloy I and 95.4 and 87.1% for Alloy II in 0.5 M H₂ SO₄ and HNO₃ respectively. Although benzotriazole, in cooling water, is an excellent inhibitor suitable for use in a wide variety of environments, it has toxic properties. So, much of the recent researches have focused on formulating new and more environmentally acceptable preservation solutions. The green tea, as plant extract, will be very environmentally friendly. The EDX confirm the formation of a protective layer on the Cu-Zn alloys containing aluminum in Alloy II. This sequence reflects the beneficial effects of Al in Alloy II. The presence of 2.43% Al in Alloy II improves the corrosion resistance due to the formation of thin, transparent, stable and self-healing Al₂ O₃ layer. This confirmed the results obtained from the potentiodynamic polarization measurements and EIS methods.