Green corrosion inhibitor for mild steel extracted from soybean leaves

The use of green-soluble inhibitors in the corrosive medium as alternatives to traditional inhibitors has increased due to the toxicity of the commonly used substances. These novel substances are selected owing to their low cost, ease of application as well as maintenance, and low environmental risk. This work aims to evaluate ethanolic-water extracts from post-harvest soybean (Glycine max) by-products as corrosion inhibitors for mild steel in an aggressive medium of sodium chloride. Soybean extracts were obtained by percolation at a controlled flow rate and temperature. To evaluate the anticorrosive efficiency, polarization curves of AISI 1030 steel were carried out at 1 and 7 days of immersion with different concentrations of the soybean extract. Weight loss measurements were carried out alongside potentiodynamic measurements. The steel samples were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. The soybean extracts obtained reduced the corrosion rate of the steel, showing an efficiency of 30% at day 1. The inhibition efficiency increased up to 80% after 7 days of incubation with 2000 ppm of the extract. A Langmuir adsorption model was fitted to weight loss measurements. K-ads and Delta G(ads) obtained from the model were characteristic of physisorption. The corrosion potential was shifted toward more negative values, classifying the ethanolic-water soybean extract as a cathodic inhibitor. The steel surface for the samples incubated with 2000 ppm of soybean extract was greatly improved showing significantly fewer agglomeration of corrosion products. Soybean leaves are a promising by-product useful to produce ethanolic-water extracts to be used as green corrosion inhibitors.