Investigation of SiO2:Na2O ratio as a Corrosion Inhibitor for Metal Alloys

The silicate is one of the potential compounds used as a corrosion inhibitor for metal alloys. The mixture between silica and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) succeeded to produce the silicate product. The formulation of a silicate product normally variable depended by the different ratio of SiO2:Na2O. This research utilized the agriculture waste product of paddy using its rice husk. In this study, the amorphous silica content in rice husk ash was used after rice husk burnt in a muffle furnace at a certain temperature. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was done to determine the existence of amorphous phase of silica in the rice husk ash. There are several studies that recognized rice husk as an alternative source that obtained high silica content. The X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis was carried out to clarify the percentage amount of Si and O elements, which referred the silica compound in rice husk ash. The preparation of sodium silicate formulation were differ based on the SiO2:Na2O ratio (SiO2:Na2O ratio = 1.00, 2.00 and 3.00). These silicate based corrosion inhibitors were tested on several testing samples, which were copper (99.9%), aluminum alloy (AA 6061) and carbon steel (SAE 1045). The purpose of this study is to determine the appropriate SiO2:Na2O ratio and understand how this SiO2:Na2O ratio can affect the corrosion rate of each metal alloys immersed in acidic medium. In order to investigate this study, weight loss test was conducted in 0.5 M hydrochloric acid (HCl) for 24 hours at room temperature.