Self-assembled monolayers of novel imidazole derivative on copper surface for anticorrosion protection in neutral medium

Abstract

In this paper, we report the 1-(3-aminopropyl)-2-methyl-1-imidazole (APMI) as self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on copper surface via self-assembly to improve anticorrosion properties. Surface structure and bonding, chemical compositions, wettability and morphology of APMI SAMs on the surface of copper have been investigated by various surface analyses including FT-IR spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), contact angle measurement (CA) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). FT-IR and XPS analysis show that the APMI molecules are successfully self-assembled on the copper surface, forming a compact protective monolayer. CA measurements revealed the hydrophobic nature of SAMs. The corrosion resistivity of APMI SAMs against corrosion in 3% NaCl solution were studied by Tafel polarization and cyclic voltammetry techniques coupled with scanning electron microscopy and the results show that formed APMI monolayer on copper could prevent the corrosion reaction at the copper-solution interface effectively. The adsorption and corrosion inhibition behaviour of APMI SAMs on Cu are also investigated by quantum chemical calculations. Further, the obtained results from the present inhibitor were compared with the existed inhibitors from the literature.